Westminster Police Department Joins National ABLE Project

November 1, 2023 – The Westminster 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. 

By demonstrating a firm commitment to transformational reform with support from local community groups and elected leaders, The Westminster Police Department  joins a select group of more than 215 other law enforcement agencies and statewide and regional training academies from across North America.

Backed by prominent civil rights and law enforcement leaders, the evidence-based, field-tested ABLE Project was developed by Georgetown Law’s Center for Innovations in Community Safety 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 mistakes, and promote health and wellness. 

ABLE gives officers the tools they need to overcome the innate and powerful inhibitors all individuals face when called upon to intervene in actions taken by their peers.

Westminster Police Chief Norm Haubert said seeking inclusion to join the ABLE Project reflected important priorities for the Westminster Police Department.

Professor Christy Lopez, co-director of Georgetown Law’s Center for Innovations in Community Safety, 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 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 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. 

• For more information about the ABLE Project, visit the program’s website.
• See a list of the ABLE Standards to which every participating agency must adhere.

For more information on the ABLE Project, review the program’s website at: law.georgetown.edu/ABLE

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