Area Briefing

D.A.R.E. PROGRAM ENDS AFTER 25 YEARS IN VALLEY’S PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The Metropolitan Police Department announced Aug. 28 the suspension of D.A.R.E., its youth anti-drug program, due to budget cuts.

The department previously ran the program at 130 schools, launching it in the valley 25 years ago.

The Clark County School District Police Department pledged to develop a curriculum similar to D.A.R.E., to be taught by Clark County School District Police Department officers.

Las Vegas has 1.83 police officers for every 1,000 residents, below the standard of 2.0, police officials said.

As a result of the shortage, the D.A.R.E. program was suspended in order to place those officers back on the street. A squad from the department’s saturation team also has been reassigned to patrol. The saturation team squads seek to reduce crime, deal with social disorder, neighborhood decay and detect emerging patterns in terrorism and intervene to prevent incidents.

The Metropolitan Police Department said it is facing an unprecedented budget shortfall of $46 million, despite building up $78 million in reserves over the last four years and cutting millions in expenses.

MADAME TUSSAUDS OFFERS FREE ADMISSION FOR PUBLIC SAFETY PERSONNEL

Madame Tussauds Las Vegas is offering active firefighters, EMTs, military personnel and police officers free admission to the attraction today as a special thanks for what they do.

Participants must show proof of employment at the box office to receive one complimentary adult general admission ticket.

Madame Tussauds Las Vegas is at The Venetian, 3355 Las Vegas Blvd. South.

For more information, visit madametussauds.com/lasvegas or call 862-7800.

KIDS CAN LEARN POLICE CAREERS DURING EXPLORER PROGRAM

The Metropolitan Police Department is seeking student recruits to join its 2012-13 Explorer program.

The new member meeting is scheduled for 8 a.m. Saturday at the police headquarters, 400 S. Martin Luther King Blvd. Students must apply and be accepted before they can attend the meeting. The department is accepting online applications for new members, ages 16 to 20, at lvmpdexplorers.com.

The program teaches students about career paths in policing, corrections, crime investigation and dispatch.

For more information about the program or the new member meeting, contact officer Michael Rodriguez at m12717R@lvmpd.com, or visit lvmpdexplorers.com.

Participants must be of good moral character, have no felony convictions or lengthy criminal history, pass a police background investigation and be motivated to volunteer in the community.

The program is a branch of the Boy Scouts of America’s Learning for Life program, developed to help build good moral character, promote good citizenship and develop personal and mental fitness.

BUFFALO DRIVE ROAD IMPROVEMENTS TO CAUSE LANE CLOSURES

Road construction is set for several weeks as the city of Las Vegas makes improvements on Buffalo Drive between Lake Mead and Charleston boulevards.

Motorists are advised to use Rainbow Boulevard or Durango Drive as alternate routes, the city said.

The eight-week project began Aug. 27. Construction hours are set for 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Monday through Friday, with portions of work being conducted during daytime hours due to noise concerns, the city said.

A minimum of two lanes in each direction are scheduled to remain open during peak morning and afternoon hours. During nighttime work, traffic may be restricted to one lane in each direction.

Preliminary work was completed earlier this year and consisted of improvements to sidewalk areas to meet federal Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.

The current work consists of removal and reconstruction of deteriorated areas of pavement, median island modifications for improved traffic flow and placement of a pavement surface overlay and new traffic markers and striping.

Las Vegas Paving Corp. is the contractor. City of Las Vegas Department of Operations and Maintenance personnel are managing the project. Funding for the $1.7 million project is provided by the city of Las Vegas.

NEW TRAFFIC SIGNAL INSTALLED IN WARD 2 AT CHARLESTON BOULEVARD INTERSECTION

The city of Las Vegas recently installed a traffic signal at Charleston Boulevard and Indigo Drive.

The signal is meant to help provide safe access onto Charleston for residents and businesses in the area.

INITIATIVE COMBATING SCHOOL VIOLENCE BEING CONSIDERED FOR AWARD

The Metropolitan Police Department’s school violence initiative recently won national recognition, being selected as one of six candidates for the Center for Problem Oriented Policing Herman Goldstein Award.

The department’s school violence initiative was implemented in 2008 following the death of Christopher Privett, a Palo Verde High School student who was shot while walking home from school. The incident shed light on the lack of police coordination and information sharing between agencies, police officials said. Since then, the school violence initiative now analyzes trends, shares information between agencies and targets problem areas.

Over the last four years, there has been a 68 percent decline in handguns recovered on and around school campuses and a 25.8 percent decline in knives recovered, according to the department.

Even though the original intention of the initiative was to prevent school shootings, the interventions used to prevent those events have helped police identify trends and respond to other forms of school violence, such as bullying.

POLICE SEEK CROSSING GUARD VOLUNTEERS

The Metropolitan Police Department seeks reliable adults to serve as school crossing guards throughout the school year. The guards will assist elementary schoolchildren crossing the streets.

For more information, call 828-3446.