Presidents Message

Good morning Iowa DARE Officers,

I hope you all had an enjoyable and refreshing summer break! I want to start by thanking Deputy Cameron Van Zante for hosting another successful DARE conference in Indianola this summer. I always enjoy going to the DARE conference every year to visit new communities and so we can all reconnect.

Now that it’s time to get back into our schools and connect with our kids again, I just wanted to reach out to all of you and introduce myself to everyone and give you some information for this next year. My name is Jason Hoerner from the Dubuque Police Department and I am honored to be serving as the President of the Iowa DARE Officer Association this year. I have been with the Dubuque PD for 21 years and have been involved with DARE since 2008. I started teaching DARE part time on my days off from patrol and then continued teaching part time when I became an SRO. In 2020, I was fortunate enough to become the full time DARE Officer in Dubuque

The 2024 Iowa DARE Conference will be held in Dubuque from July 14-16, 2024 at the Best Western Plus Hotel and Conference Center. I am excited to be bringing this conference back to Dubuque and for those of you that have attended this conference in Dubuque in the past, you will see some changes in the venue. As I mentioned in closing at this summer’s conference, we all have to be very vigilant in making room reservations. There is a block of rooms reserved for us, but any rooms not reserved will be released 30 days prior to the conference. I am working on finding a back-up hotel just in case, but I have already been warned by multiple hotels that room availability during the summer will be less than normal due to all of the activities at the Field of Dreams complex in Dyersville, which is expected to be busier than the last couple of years. The block of rooms is now open to make reservations and I know it’s early yet but please make your reservations as soon as possible. You will need to call the             Best Western at 563-557-8000 and tell them that you’re making a reservation under the block code “DARE 2024.” If you experience any problems with this process, let me know and I will look into it.

This year’s theme is “DARE to be your best.” We had another great bunch of essays submitted this last year which made judging them a bit of a challenge, but that is a good thing, and I look forward to the challenge again this year! We all teach some really outstanding students and I think we can all say that the different things they learn from us can go a long ways to help them be the best they can be.

I hope all of you can join us in Dubuque next summer and take advantage of what we have to offer. There are also some other surrounding communities that are nice to visit so this could be an opportunity to make this a nice little family vacation while you’re here.

I will send out more information throughout the school year and reach out to me if you need anything.

Have a great year and stay safe.

Jason Hoerner

D.A.R.E. Coordinator/School Resource Officer

Dubuque Police Department

770 Iowa Street

Dubuque, Iowa 52001

Office: 563-587-3640

jhoerner@cityofdubuque.org