St. Robert police have a problem, but it's not necessarily a bad problem: too many schools like Officer Crystal Nunn, who was asked to begin a Drug Abuse Resistance Education program at Freedom Elementary School and now handles several other programs at schools on Fort Leonard Wood. Nunn had worked as a police officer in St. Robert before she left for a suburban St. Louis police agency where she received training as a DARE officer. When she returned to the St. Robert Police Department last year, city officials decided it would be good to use her DARE training to begin a program when the Waynesville R-VI School District opened a new elementary school in St. Robert. [continues 182 words]
With only 53 students, the Swedeborg R-II School District is too small to have a high school, but this year it was able to offer Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program. "This was the first time we had DARE in many, many years," said district administrator George Lauritson. "We are going to do it every other year because we have fifth and sixth grades combined." Swedeborg doesn't have its own police department, so Lauritson first sought help from Pulaski County Sheriff J.T. Roberts. Pulaski County doesn't have a certified DARE officer, but Roberts said he didn't mind if Lauritson could find assistance elsewhere. [continues 267 words]
Both the Clovis Police Department and Curry County Sheriff's Office say they need more officers to control increasing crime, but Clovis police have an unusual problem: While the department has a grant to hire two new school resource officers, it is having trouble finding people to fill the positions. On Tuesday, the Public Safety Committee of the Clovis City Commission will meet at 10 a.m. in the Bert Cabiness City Government Center to hear a presentation by Capt. Dan Blair on staffing issues. [continues 628 words]
Martin Smith told a jail officer he swallowed a packet of methamphetamine on Saturday night because he didn't want his mother to find out on Mother's Day that he had been arrested for drug possession. The Clovis man died early Sunday morning from complications related to the meth ingestion, officials said. "Martin told me that he does not use drugs and he did not want his mother to know anything about this," Curry County Adult Detention Center Officer Amanda Johnson wrote in a report released by the jail on Thursday. [continues 475 words]
