Kennewick Police Department 
Youth Services

The Youth Services Unit is comprised of four School Resource Officers (SRO's), and a Drug Abuse Resistance Education Officer (DARE), and is supervised by  Sgt. Randy Maynard.

SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS

The School Resource Officer (SRO) was developed in partnership with the Kennewick School District and the Kennewick Police Department.  The program was first started in the 1994/1995 school year. SRO's asre assigned to Kennewick High School, Kamiakin, High School and Southridge High Scool. A Law Enforcement Instructor assigned to Tri-Tech Regional Skills Center.  The primary duty of the SRO is to provide police services to their assigned school and assist with the safety of the students and staff.  The SRO's are responsible for providing educational instruction to students in areas such as traffic safety and government classes and as a resource to students.  The SRO's are also available as informal counselors to students who can speak to the SRO about a problem or situation they are dealing with.  When requested, SRO's also assist at the Middle Schools that are the “feeder schools” to their assigned High School.

The SRO/Law Enforcement Instructor program was started during the 1996/1997 school year at the Tri-Tech Skills Center in Kennewick.  The Law Enforcement Instructor is currently teaching a high school vocational law enforcement program.  Tri-Tech serves seven school districts in the Mid-Columbia region and the program is fully funded by the participating school districts.  The Law Enforcement Program has been one of the most popular programs.

Kamiakin High School SRO           Officer Mike Hahn

Kennewick High School SRO        Officer Eric Hanson

Southridge High School SRO         Officer James Canada

DRUG ABUSE RESISTANCE EDUCATION OFFICER

The D.A.R.E program was instituted in our schools in 1988 as a result of the strong partnership between the Kennewick School District and the Kennewick Police Department.  There is currently one officer assigned to teach D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education).  D.A.R.E. is first introduced to our kindergarten students, with follow up in the third grade and the core curriculum is taught to our fifth graders.  The core classes are taught once a week in a semester during the student's fifth grade year.  The 10-week curriculum ends with a culmination ceremony where the students are honored in front of their peers, family, and other members of the community.  The focus of D.A.R.E. is to educate students about drugs and their dangers along with giving students skills for refusing drug offers.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse has released the 2005 "Monitoring the Future" survey.  The proportion of 8th, 10th and 12th grade students who use illicit drugs continued to decline in 2005.  Over the past four years there has been a 19% decrease in teenage drug use.  This is real progress, and although we cannot take complete credit, there is no question that D.A.R.E. is a key component of the efforts made to achieve these results.

Bottom-line, there are now 670,000 fewer teens using drugs than there were in 2001.  Congratulations to Kennewick Police Officer Mike Meyer and all D.A.R.E. Officers for their dedication and commitment to helping the youth within the Kennewick School District and our nation to resist drugs and violence!