ABLE

The Georgetown Law Center for Innovations in Community Safety (formerly known as the Innovative Policing Program), partnering with global law firm Sheppard, has created ABLE (Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement) to prepare officers to successfully intervene to prevent police misconduct, reduce mistakes and promote officer health and wellness, with the goal of fostering a police culture that supports peer intervention.

ABLE builds upon research developed by Dr. Ervin Staub, the Founding Director of the UMass Amherst Psychology of Peace and Violence Program, to help police officers stop unnecessary harmful behavior by fellow officers. In 2014, Dr. Staub, other experts, and the New Orleans Police Department developed the successful Ethical Policing Is Courageous (EPIC) Peer Intervention Program in New Orleans. 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 also provides a wide array of resources to law enforcement agencies across the country interested in adopting ABLE.