Deputy Billy Cox is assigned to the Norfork School Disctrict as a School Resource Officer. Deputy Cox provides a law enforcement presence along with teaching educational programs such as D.A.R.E.

Deputy Mandee Love is assigned to the Mountain Home School District at the Pinkston Middle School D.A.R.E. Officer. Deputy Love provides the D.A.R.E program to over 600 students each week in the 5th and 6th grade.

Deputy Julie Tilley just assumed duties as the SRO-DARE Officer at the Cotter Public Schools at the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year.

This year millions of school children around the world will benefit from D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), the highly acclaimed program that gives kids the skills they need to avoid involvement in drugs, gangs, and violence. D.A.R.E. was founded in 1983 in Los Angeles and has proven so successful that it is now being implemented in 75 percent of our nation's school districts and in more than 43 countries around the world. D.A.R.E. is a police officer-led series of classroom lessons that teaches children how to resist peer pressure and live productive drug and violence-free lives.

The D.A.R.E. curriculum is taught by our school resource officers whose training and experience allows them to answer the sophisticated questions often posed by young students about drugs and crime. Prior to entering the D.A.R.E. program, officers undergo 80 hours of special training in areas such as child development, classroom management, teaching techniques, and communication skills.

Since 1997, Baxter County has educated over 4,000 students using the D.A.R.E program. We are proud of the impact it makes on their lives:

- "humanizes" the police; that is, young people can begin to relate to officers as people
- permits students to see officers in a helping role, not just an enforcement role
- opens lines of communication between law enforcement and youth
- opens dialogue between the school, law enforcement and parents to deal with other issues