Peoria County Sheriff’s Office: D.A.R.E.

The Peoria County Sheriff's Office adopted the D.A.R.E. program in 1989. The program was manned by one full time Deputy and he taught only the core level (5th grade) at five grade schools in Peoria County.

Today the program is manned by two full time Deputies and is taught at twenty seven different schools. All grade levels are taught beginning with kindergarten and including the junior high and senior high school levels. Each year approximately 5000 students are reached by this agency through the D.A.R.E. program.

We also teach the V.E.G.A. (Violence, Education, & Gang Awareness) program to sixth grade students, and added the G.R.E.A.T. (Gang Resistance Education) program in the 1998 fall semester.