Title
Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement Training (Ordinance S-48197)
Description
Request to authorize the City Manager, or his designee, approval to enter into an agreement with Georgetown Law Center for Innovations in Community Safety to provide Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement Training for the Phoenix Police Department. The training, created by Georgetown University Law Department, will be held for all levels of sworn and civilian employees of the Police Department. Further request authorization for the City Controller to disburse all funds related to this item. The training will cost $20,000.
Report
Summary
The Georgetown Innovative Policing Program, partnering with global law firm Sheppard Mullin, created the Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) Project to prepare officers to successfully intervene to prevent harm and to create a law enforcement culture that supports peer intervention. The ABLE Project delivers practical, scenario-based training for police agencies in the strategies and tactics of police peer intervention. Law enforcement officers are frequently faced with high-stress, high-stake decisions. ABLE believes it is the responsibility of every officer to act to prevent mistakes, prevent misconduct, and promote their fellow officers’ health and wellbeing. ABLE training is based on a professionally-designed curriculum that draws on decades of social science research and uses adult-based learning methods to deliver this learning effectively. The training employs evidence-based practices to give officers the tools and skills they need to perform an intervention. ABLE also teaches the science behind the skills, so that officers have a better understanding of why the training works and thus can use it more effectively. Active bystandership has proven effective in reducing harm in the medical profession, in the airline industry, and on college and university campuses.
The Phoenix Police Department (PPD) has applied and been accepted into the ABLE Program and will begin training in January of 2022. To accelerate the roll out of the program to the entire Department, the PPD is requesting Train-the-Trainer (TTT) training by ABLE Project staff to designated personnel identified for this effort. The TTT instructors will begin their training in January of 2022, with the training for the entire Department starting in February of 2022. In addition to the on-site TTT training session, ABLE will provide basic technical assistance, proprietary ABLE Project training curriculum, and program materials for the training course to all the PPD employees.
Contract Term
A Memoranda of Understanding with Georgetown Law Center for Innovations in Community Safety will be signed for a 12 month period from date of signature and can be extended as needed.
Financial Impact
This training will cost $20,000 and the funds are available in the Police Department's budget.
Concurrence/Previous Council Action
This item was recommended for approval by the Public Safety and Justice Subcommittee on Dec. 8, 2021 by a vote of 4-0.
Department
Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Assistant City Manager Lori Bays and the Police Department.