Decades of research support the idea that active bystandership can prevent harm and change culture. But active bystandership, and in particular the impact of active bystandership training, has not been rigorously studied in the policing context. We intend to address this gap by conducting, and supporting efforts by others to conduct, a variety of ABLE impact evaluations, experimental, quasi-experimental, and non-experimental. We seek to determine the impact of ABLE training, and of the implementation of ABLE in agencies more broadly, on policing attitudes, conduct, and culture. We hope that this not only helps us better understand and adapt ABLE to make it ever-more effective, but that we also will learn how to effectively evaluate policing interventions more generally.

We are guided in this effort by our extraordinary ABLE Research Advisory Board (RAB). Our RAB brings together a broad spectrum of expertise and experience that informs the questions we will try to answer about ABLE, and how we will go about doing so. Our RAB also helps us identify others who may be interested in studying ABLE, either independently or in partnership. Notwithstanding our Board members’ many other obligations, they volunteer their time to this Board. We are grateful for their insights and effort.

ABLE Research Advisory Board Members:

Geoffrey Alpert, Ph.D.
Professor, Criminology and Criminal Justice
University of South Carolina

Lester Andrist, Ph.D.
Senior Faculty Specialist and Program Director, Master of Professional Studies in Public Safety Leadership and Administration
University of Maryland

Joel Dvoskin, Ph.D., ABFP
Clinical and Forensic Psychologist
Clinical Assistant Professor, Psychiatry
University of Arizona College of Medicine

Jack Glaser, Ph.D.
Professor, Richard & Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy
University of California, Berkeley

Andrea M. Headley, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, McCourt School of Public Policy
Georgetown University
Visiting Scholar on Race, Policing, and Crime
National Police Foundation

Howard Henderson, Ph.D.
Founding Director of the Center for Justice Research and Professor of Justice Administration
Barbara Jordan – Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs
Texas Southern University
Nonresident Senior Fellow in Governance Studies
The Brookings Institution

Tracey Meares, J.D.
Walton Hale Hamilton Professor of Law and Founding Director of the Justice Collaboratory
Yale Law School

Mara Revkin, J.D., Ph.D.
National Security Law Fellow
Georgetown University Law Center

Catherine Sanderson, Ph.D.
Poler Family Professor and Chair of Psychology
Amherst College

Elsie Scott, Ph.D.
Founding Director of the Ronald W. Walters Leadership and Public Policy Center
Howard University

Ervin Staub, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Founding Director of the Psychology of Peace and Violence Program
University of Massachusetts Amherst
ABLE Founding Partner

Ben Struhl, M.P.P.
Executive Director, Penn Crime and Justice Lab
University of Pennsylvania

Neel U. Sukhatme, J.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Law
Georgetown University Law Center
Thomas Alva Edison Visiting Scholar
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Co-Founder and Director
Free Our Vote

Jamillah Bowman Williams, J.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Faculty Director of the Workers’ Rights Institute
Georgetown University Law Center