L.E.A.D. PROGRAM: LAW ENFORCEMENT AGAINST DRUGS
In 1990, Chief of Police Jerry Gamble asked his Juvenile Officer, Lieutenant Harold Engold, to look into a Drug Awareness Program being offered to 5th and 6th graders in the public school system. The successful program was called D.A.R.E., which stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education, and was supported for over 25 years by the Haledon Municipal Alliance and Haledon P.B.A. Local 349.
In 2023, under the command of Chief of Police Angelo J. Daniele and Deputy Chief of Police George Guzman, Jr., the Haledon Police Department implemented the Community and Youth Services Division and transitioned to a more robust drug awareness program, Law Enforcement Against Drugs (L.E.A.D.), which offered a curriculum to students between kindergarten and grade 12.
The Law Enforcement Against Drugs (L.E.A.D.) program is a collaborative effort by L.E.A.D.-certified law enforcement officers, educators, students, parents, and the community to offer an educational program in the classroom to prevent or reduce drug abuse and violence among children and youth.
The emphasis of the program in fifth grade is to help students recognize and resist the many direct and subtle pressures that influence them to experiment with alcohol, tobacco, inhalants, or other drugs or to engage in violence. The L.E.A.D. program offers preventive strategies to enhance protective factors – especially bonding to the family, school, and community – which has been proven to help foster the development of resiliency in young people at risk for substance abuse or other problem behaviors. It also helps to build young people's capacity to make healthy, independent growth, despite adverse conditions. These strategies focus on developing social competence, communication skills, self-esteem, empathy, decision-making, conflict resolution, a sense of purpose and independence, and positive alternative activities to drug abuse and other destructive behaviors.
In the Borough of Haledon, led by members of the Community Policing & Youth Services Division, the L.E.A.D. Program is taught in the 5th grade. The program is organized into ten 60-minute lessons taught by a Haledon Police Officer Certified in the L.E.A.D. Instructional Curriculum. Classes are scheduled through the Haledon Police Department and the Haledon Public School to prevent scheduling conflicts with other ongoing educational programs. Student participation in the L.E.A.D. program is incorporated as part of the school's curricular offering in health, science, social studies, language arts, or other subjects as appropriate.
The L.E.A.D. curriculum has proven effective in reducing adolescent alcohol, tobacco, and drug use in students by preparing students to act decisively in refusing offers to use drugs and helping students to recognize the risks and avoid drug-related situations. It also focuses on building strong decision-making, communication, planning, and assertive refusal skills. At the program's core is empowering youth to value their perceptions and feelings and make choices supporting drug-free values.
The L.E.A.D. programs – offered in concert with other school-based prevention activities and intervention strategies for the identification, early intervention, and aftercare support of students at risk for substance abuse – may be viewed as a comprehensive substance abuse program that meets the goals of the federal Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act.
For more information regarding our L.E.A.D. Program, you may contact the Haledon Police Department Community Policing & Youth Services Division at 973.790.4444. You may also visit http://www.leadrugs.org.
L.E.A.D. INSTRUCTORS:
Sergeant Frank Conca - Detective/Sergeant Jessica Funes - Corporal Jake Rutkowski - Detective Omar Zadeh