Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) Project

About ABLE

Years of academic research and on-the-ground experience has shown us that effective active bystandership can be taught. The Center for Innovations in Community Safety, partnering with global law firm Sheppard Mullin, has created ABLE* (Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement) to prepare officers to successfully intervene to prevent harm and to create a law enforcement culture that supports peer intervention.

ABLE is a national hub for training, technical assistance, and research, all with the aim of creating a police culture in which officers routinely intervene—and accept interventions—as necessary to:

  • Prevent misconduct,
  • Avoid police mistakes, and
  • Promote officer health and wellness.

Hear civil rights advocate Roy Austin describe the potential impact of ABLE on our officers and our communities:

Building upon a training developed by Dr. Ervin Staub, the Founding Director of a program on the psychology of peace and violence, to help police officers stop unnecessary harmful behavior by fellow officers, in 2014, Dr. Staub, other consultants, and the New Orleans Police Department developed the EPIC (Ethical Policing Is Courageous) peer intervention program.

ABLE builds upon EPIC and Dr. Staub’s prior work to develop and deliver practical, scenario-based training for police agencies in the strategies and tactics of police peer intervention. ABLE guides agencies and communities on the concrete measures that must be in place to create and sustain a culture of peer intervention.

ABLE training and implementation support is provided at no cost to law enforcement agencies, but those agencies must commit to creating a culture of active bystandership and peer intervention through policy, training, support, and accountability. For more information, please see the ABLE Standards.

 

*ABLE Project, Project ABLE, ABLE, and Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement are trademarks of the President and Directors of Georgetown College.

Facts and Stats
By the Numbers

414 ABLE agencies

2,961 instructors trained

42 U.S. states represented

3 Canadian provinces represented

169,000+ officers at ABLE agencies

181 million+ community members served by ABLE agencies