Every D.C. police officer will receive new training on what to do if they see another officer breaking the law, violating policy or simply making a situation worse.
In 38 states, 179 agencies have certified more than 100,000 officers in Active Bystandership in Law Enforcement (ABLE).
The training is meant to empower officers to step in when they see misconduct by another officer, including superiors.
Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee ordered every D.C. police officer receive the eight-hour training class. So far, about 1,400 of the department’s 3,500 officers have taken the training.
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It comes as a result of the murder of George Floyd by a police officer.
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“We all saw a man killed in the street when other officers looked on,” D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said. “We have to learn, we have to stop, we have to pause we have to learn from that.”
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Contee hopes the training will help build back the trust of the community that may have been lost.
“We respond to over 700,000 calls a year for service,” he said. “And most of those are great interactions, but it only takes one negative interaction to impact what this police department invests in the community day in and day out really to erode that trust.”
