Yonkers Police Department To Embrace Active Bystandership Training To Prevent Any Rogue YPD Officers From Harming Residents – By Brian Harrod

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The Georgetown University Law Center’s Innovative Policing Program is being joined by the Yonkers Police Department. They will follow 33 other law enforcement agencies to partake in the Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) Project, a national training and support initiative focused on U.S. law enforcement agencies committed to building a culture of peer intervention that prevents harm in the community.

Backed by prominent civil rights and law enforcement leaders, the evidence-based ABLE Project was developed by Georgetown Law’s Innovative Policing Program in collaboration with global law firm Sheppard Mullin, pioneering active bystandership scholar Ervin Staub, and a host of other experts to provide Yonkers law enforcement officers with practical active bystandership strategies and tactics to prevent misconduct, reduce officer mistakes, and promote health and wellness.

Building upon decades of research and on-the-ground testing, ABLE ensures officers have both the training and the supportive institutional culture they need to overcome the powerful inhibitors individuals face when called upon to intervene in actions taken by their peers.

“The ABLE Project was created to ensure every police officer in the United States has the opportunity to receive meaningful, effective active bystandership training while helping law enforcement agencies transform their approach to policing,” said Professor Christy Lopez, co-director of of Georgetown Law’s Innovative Policing Program, which runs ABLE.

“Having duty-to-intervene policies on the books isn’t enough. Building a police culture that supports and sustains the successful use of proven peer intervention strategies is key to preventing harm.”

To be accepted into the ABLE Project, agencies must commit to 10 ABLE standards that demonstrate commitment to creating a culture of active bystandership, as well as support from local community groups and elected leaders.

Over the coming weeks, the ABLE Project train-the-trainer program will certify instructors for the Yonkers PD.

Then, over the coming months, these YPD instructors will provide eight hours of evidence-based active bystandership training to every officer in the city of hills while they take other required steps to build a culture that ensures that training will take hold.

The ABLE Project is guided by its Board of Advisors comprised of civil rights, social justice, and law enforcement leaders, including Vanita Gupta, the president of the Leadership Council on Civil and Human Rights; Commissioner Michael Harrison of the Baltimore Police Department; Commissioner Danielle Outlaw of the Philadelphia Police Department; Ervin Staub, professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the founder of the Psychology of Peace and Justice Project; and an impressive collection of additional police leaders, rank and file officers, and social justice leaders.