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Title:
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Rendering Aid and Training on Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement
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Title
Rendering Aid and Training on Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement
Description
This report provides the Public Safety and Justice Subcommittee an update on the Police Department’s policy on rendering aid to an injured person as well as the Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) training, which focuses on peer intervention in officer misconduct.
THIS ITEM IS FOR INFORMATION AND DISCUSSION.
Report
Summary
Rendering Aid
In July 2020, the Police Department updated policy to emphasize the duty to render aid any time there is an injury, or an alleged injury, as a result of an interaction with Department personnel. Employees are required to:
- Examine any person claiming injury and render first aid, if necessary.
- Request medical personnel to respond to the scene, if appropriate.
- Immediately notify a supervisor.
Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement Training
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-stakes 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.
After the ABLE Program training was approved by the City Council, the "train the trainer program" was conducted in March 2022, with 25 pre-selected instructors from within the Phoenix Police Department. These instructors have been training all sworn and professional staff throughout the past year. Currently, there are over 500 employees who have completed the ABLE training curriculum. Each week, 25 more employees matriculate through the eight-hour program.
An additional aspect of the ABLE program includes the 10 ABLE Standards that must be met by the Police Department. These standards include:
Community Support
Meaningful Training
Dedicated Coordination
Program Awareness
Accountability
Officer Wellness
Reporting
Measuring of Officer Perceptions
Follow Through
Paying it Forward
The Police Department has met many of these standards already and is currently working on the Program Awareness and Accountability Standards. To support Program Awareness, staff that complete the ABLE Program will be awarded a lapel pins that represents the program and curriculum. The pins serves as a visual reminder of the important elements of the program and highlights the skills that staff have gained.
The second standard currently being worked on is the Accountability Standard. This work includes rewriting the policy for Duty to Intervene and the policy for Anti-Retaliation to ensure interveners are not punished, targeted, or otherwise ostracized, and the department will promptly and fully investigate all instances of apparent retaliation and hold officers accountable for retaliation.
Related Policy Updates
Currently, the Police Department has a Medical Treatment/Duty to Render Aid, Sanctuary of Life and a Duty to Intervene policy under the Response to Resistance section of the department's Operations Orders. Each policy states:
- Medical Treatment (Duty to Render Aid): "Employees are responsible for requesting medical treatment for subjects against whom force was used."
- Sanctity of Life: "The Department respects the dignity of all persons and recognized the sanctity of human life, rights, and liberty."
- Duty to Intervene: "All employees will intervene when they know or should know another employee is using unreasonable force. All employees will immediately report excessive force verbally to a supervisor."
The Police Department is currently working on the expansion of each of the policies to be standalone policies and recognized as a national best practice. The expansion of these policies will enforce the best practices of the ABLE program's standards and recommendations for an agency to follow.
Concurrence/Previous Council Action
The Phoenix City Council approved the ABLE program on Dec. 15, 2021.
Department
Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Assistant City Manager Lori Bays and the Police Department.