ENABLE PENNSYLVANIA: ACTIVE BYSTANDER TRAINING FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT
EnABLE Pennsylvania: Active Bystander Training for Law Enforcement By: Scott L. Bohn, Executive Director, PCPA
It has long been the mission of the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association (PCPA) to promote and provide innovative evidence-based programs to law enforcement throughout the Commonwealth. To that end, I
PA CHIEFS OF POLICE ASSOCIATION
am excited to introduce the Georgetown University Law Center’s Active Bystander for Law Enforcement (ABLE) Project. ABLE teaching a skill that will protect officers and community members from unnecessary harm. I am proud to be working closely with the ABLE team to train, recruit, and roll out this incredible program. Soon after May 31, 2020 at 9:25 p.m., following George Floyds death, I asked myself, “why are officers so quick to risk their lives for their peers, but so slow to stop them before they do something that may end their career?” The pursuit of an answer to this question led me to Commissioner Danielle Outlaw, Georgetown Law Center, the Georgetown Innovative Policing Program, the global law firm Sheppard Mullin, and the ABLE Project. According to Jonathan Aronie, the Chair of the ABLE Project Board of Advisors, “the ABLE Project teaches the tactics and skills of intervention to prevent harm to community members and police officers.” I’ve been through the training program and can say without hesitation that it will work. Active bystandership – that is, the willingness of one officer to intervene on the actions of another officer regardless of rank – is not a new concept,
but its effectiveness is becoming more evident in policing. In 2015, the New Orleans Police Department developed a departmentwide bystandership program called EPIC (Ethical Policing Is Courageous) as part of their broad reform efforts. Scott L. Bohn That successful program Executive Director now has grown into the PCPA Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) Project, a national best practice program administered out of the Georgetown University Law School's Innovative Policing Program. It is common sense that agencies that incorporate a culture of Bystander Intervention are less likely to end up with the types of horrific and preventable incidents and crimes that destroy lives and communities. A culture of Active Bystandership not only saves lives and officer careers, but also avoids the unrest and erosion of trust that results when we fail to stop harm before it occurs. Police executives are driven by a tremendous sense of service and duty to their communities. The community understands that we as police officers make mistakes. But the community does not understand how one officer can stand by while another engages in harmdoing – nor should they.
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