Yonkers Insider: ***NEWS RELEASE***: YONKERS POLICE DEPARTMENT JOINS NATIONAL ABLE PROJECT.

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: YONKERS POLICE DEPARTMENT JOINS NATIONAL ABLE PROJECT.

YPD is One of 30 Departments Nationwide Accepted into Active Bystandership Training.

YONKERS, NY – October 1, 2020 – Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano today announced the Yonkers Police Department has been accepted into the Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) Project, Georgetown University Law Center’s national training and support initiative for U.S. law enforcement agencies committed to building a culture of peer intervention that prevents harm. ABLE gives officers the tools they need to overcome the innate and powerful inhibitors individuals face when called upon to intervene in actions taken by their peers.

By demonstrating agency commitment to transformational reform with support from local community groups and elected leaders, the Yonkers Police Department joins a select group of 30 other law enforcement agencies and statewide and regional training academies chosen to participate in the ABLE Project’s national rollout.

“Joining the ABLE Project is just another forward step in reimagining our police department,” said Mayor Spano. “We are very proud of the reforms taken so far in the department and the ABLE Project certainly will enhance our approach to peer engagement and police training. We are honored to be accepted in this extraordinary program and look forward to evolving our department, both internally and externally.”

Backed by prominent civil rights and law enforcement leaders, the evidence-based, field-tested ABLE Project was developed by Georgetown Law’s Innovative Policing Program in collaboration with global law firm Sheppard Mullin LLP to provide practical active bystandership strategies and tactics to law enforcement officers to prevent misconduct, reduce officer mistakes, and promote health and wellness. 

Yonkers Police Commissioner John Mueller commented, ““The Yonkers Police Department is extremely grateful to have been accepted to this very innovative training. It is worth noting that hundreds of law enforcement across the United States and Canada applied and the YPD was fortunate enough to be one of the few that were accepted to participate. This training can only further solidify our commitment to our community as well as our officers. Police and community are always better together.”

Professor Christy Lopez, co-director of Georgetown Law’s Innovative Policing Program, which runs ABLE, explained: “The ABLE Project seeks to ensure every police officer in the United States has the opportunity to receive meaningful, effective active bystandership training, and to help agencies transform their approach to policing by building a culture that supports and sustains successful peer intervention to prevent harm.” 

Chair of the ABLE Project Board of Advisors, Sheppard Mullin partner Jonathan Aronie, added: “Intervening in another’s action is harder than it looks after the fact, but it’s a skill we all can learn.  And, frankly, it’s a skill we all need – police and non-police.  ABLE teaches that skill.”

The ABLE Project is guided by a 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; Dr. Ervin Staub, professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the founder of the Psychology of Peace and Justice Program; and an impressive collection of other police leaders, rank and file officers, and social justice leaders. 

·                     See the complete list of the ABLE Project Board of Advisors.

·                     For more information about the ABLE Project, visit the program’s website.

·                     See a list of the ABLE Standards to which every participant must adhere.

·                     These articles share more information about active bystandership generally, and the ABLE Project in particular.

The ABLE Project Train-The-Trainer event begins later this month.  Over the coming weeks, Yonkers Police instructors will be certified as ABLE trainers; and over the coming months, all our officers will receive 8 hours of evidence-based active bystandership training designed not only to prevent harm, but to change the culture of policing. 

Admittance into the ABLE Project comes just a week after the City of Yonkers convened its Police Reform Committee which will meet for the next four months for a fact-based, open dialogue about the public safety needs of the city and how to rebuild police-community relations.