Temple Terrace Police Department Joins National ABLE Project

TEMPLE TERRACE, FL — The city of Temple Terrace 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.

The ABLE Project Train-the-Trainer event begins later this month. In the coming weeks, Temple Terrace Police instructors will be certified as ABLE trainers, and, over the next few months, all officers will receive eight hours of evidence-based active bystandership training designed not only to prevent harm, but to change the culture of policing. The public is invited to follow the progress in this critical area on the City's website and social media and to receive updates at future meetings of the Temple Terrace City Council.

By demonstrating agency commitment to transformational reform with support from local community groups and elected leaders, Temple Terrace 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. To date, hundreds of agencies across the country have expressed interest in participating. 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.

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.

"Seeking inclusion to join the ABLE Project reflects important priorities for the Temple Terrace Police Department," said Police Chief Kenneth R. Albano. "The men and women of the Temple Terrace Police Department are committed to the principles of accountability, transparency and fidelity across all our ranks. I believe that each day provides us with the opportunity to improve ourselves and the way we serve our community. ABLE training will help us to accomplish both of these objectives while reinforcing the policing and accountability policies and practices we currently have in place," said Chief Albano.

Those backing the Temple Terrace Police Department's application to join the program included Safe and Sound Hillsborough and the Children's Board of Hillsborough County, both of which wrote letters of support.

"The Temple Terrace Police Department has a long history of commitment to the self-improvement of their officers and support staff which ties into their service-before-self philosophy which is the gold standard in how they go about their daily operations; always striving to provide a high standard in service to the City's residents and guests," wrote Freddy Barton, Executive Director of Safe & Sound Hillsborough.

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."

"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," added Chair of the ABLE Project Board of Advisors, Sheppard Mullin partner Jonathan Aronie.

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.

This press release was produced by Temple Terrace Police Department. The views expressed here are the author's own.