Official Website of Lake Havasu City

Arizona Youth Partnership (AzYP) is working with Young Adult Development Authority of Havasu (YADAH) in the Lake Havasu area. AzYP is interested in gathering information from adults in the Lake Havasu area on their perceptions of the use of alcohol and drugs by youth. Your responses to the survey are anonymous. AzYP has hired an outside evaluator to collect the information from the surveys and summarize the results in a report. To take the survey please visit the Arizona Youth Partnership web site.

Lake Havasu City is proud to be added to the list of agencies throughout the United States that is adding another tool in the form of community assistance through telephonic means. A Child is Missing incorporated is contacted by our agency in the case of a missing child, elderly or vulnerable adult and a message is given to them. They then send out an immediate message to residences and business land lines giving a full description of the missing subject and request the listener to assist with looking in their immediate vicinity for this person. A Child is Missing is then notified when the subject is located by the reporting agency. This a great addition to the tools available to law enforcement when it comes to locating our missing loved ones.

The Lake Havasu City Citizen Police Academy Alumni Association was formed shortly after graduation of the Inaugural Citizen Police Academy in 2007 and is intended as a natural progression of the twelve-week Citizens Police Academy. The Citizen Police Academy Alumni Association is a community-based organization separate and distinct from the Police Department but seeks alternative resources to further community/police related goals. Alumni members are encouraged to continue their learning experience from the academy within the Alumni Association.

Mission Statement

The mission of the Lake Havasu City Citizen Police Academy Alumni Association is to provide continuing education and increase community involvement, while supporting the Lake Havasu City Police Department in its mission to ensure a safe and secure community.

Projects

As its first major project, the CPA Alumni Association partnered with the Phoenix FBI CPA Alumni Association to bring an Internet Sexual Predator Presentation to Lake Havasu City. The program was designed and presented by an FBI Special Agent and expert in the field. The goal of the program was to provide parents with the necessary tools to keep their children safe from sexual predators.

CPA Alumni Association is currently working on a fundraising campaign that they can "call their own." Funds raised from these efforts will help implement some exciting projects and education opportunities in the future.

ll Academy graduates are welcome and encouraged to join. For further information contact Beth Titus, President, at (928) 699-0399, or email at batrat4@aol.com.

The LHCPD Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) Program is a substance abuse prevention education program designed to equip elementary school children with skills for resisting peer pressure to experiment with tobacco, drugs, alcohol and to engage in gangs or criminal activity.

D.A.R.E. was developed in 1983 by the Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles Unified School District. It uses uniformed officers to teach a formal curriculum to students in a classroom setting.

The Lake Havasu City Police Department D.A.R.E. Program annually serves more than 400 fifth graders in five elementary schools and 200 seventh graders in two middle schools. It began here in 1986 with the assistance of the Lake Havasu City School District. It had two part time DARE police officers, five schools and 200 students. Today its staff numbers seven officers and a sergeant.

D.A.R.E. Lesson Plans D.A.R.E. Program

D.A.R.E. lesson plans focus on five major areas:

Provide accurate information about tobacco, alcohol and drugs.
Teach students decision-making skills.
Show students how to resist peer pressure.
Give students ideas for alternatives to drug use.
Resist gangs and criminal activity.

One precept of the D.A.R.E. program is that elementary school children lack sufficient social skills to resist peer pressure and say NO to drugs. Instructors do not use scare tactics or traditional approaches that focus on the dangers of drug use. Instead, they work with the children to raise their self-esteem, to teach them how to make decisions on their own, and to help them identify positive alternatives to drugs.

Key Program Elements

D.A.R.E. is a joint effort by the Lake Havasu City Police Department, Lake Havasu Unified School District, and parents, all three working together to help our children make the right choice concerning drug use. One unique feature of D.A.R.E. is the use of police officers as instructors. The officers, who are selected because of their human relations and communications skills, are trained to present a special 17-lesson instruction unit.

Tips for Parents

Establish family rules that make use of drugs "non-negotiable."
Educate yourself about drugs so you can talk informatively with your children and answer their questions.
Because peer pressure is a major factor in teen drug use and gangs, know your children's friends.
Talk with other parents. Try to establish uniform rules that make access to drugs harder, such as curfews and the amount of spending money your children receive. If a problem exists get help! Don't say "Not My Child!"

For more information, call the D.A.R.E. office at (928) 855-1171.

The Lake Havasu Area First Responder Smart Card Program is a new program hosted by the Parent Network and available through the Parent Network and Lake Havasu City Police Department. This program is a multi agency response program providing another level of assistance in responding to locations where there may be a person with a Developmental Disability or Mental Impairment.

In some instances when Police, Fire or Ambulance personnel are responding to a location or vehicle collision, a person involved in the incident may not be able to accurately articulate their problem or emotional state and that due to this inability precious time is used. This tool enables first responders to understand that there is additional information available, at hand in the form of a packet kept in the home or in the vehicle that will state diagnosed disability or medical/medication related needs.

The Smart Card Program is a copyright program from Tri Cities Partnership and is used with their permission. We expect the program to be implemented in the Lake Havasu area by June of 2008.

The program was designed and implemented in 1999 as a way for the police officers to better locate persons who have a memory impairment either from a developmental disability such as dementia or alzheimers, impairment from a stroke or a traumatic impact impairment such as memory loss due to head injury.

To register, the primary care-giver contacts the police department and a form is completed, detailing information such as type of impairment, name and physical description and any other pertinent physical or medication related issues. Then a picture is taken and both items are placed into the computer database. A bracelet may be issued to the memory impaired subject when there is history of independence or frequent wandering away from the caregiver. The bracelet is not a permanent item and may be removed for hospital/lab visitation. A person who is entered into the program remains until removed by the caregiver or other information is received.