An Evaluation of Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) Training: A Multi-Method Approach to Measuring Effectiveness

Within policing, a common sentiment is that most police officers want to do the right thing; give them sufficient instruction on what to do, and they will do so with honor.  However, when faced with situations where “doing the right thing” means having to tell a co-worker that they are doing the wrong thing, officers may be hesitant to act given the shared cultural kinship.  Rather than intervene in situations involving excessive force, unconstitutional actions, or otherwise problematic behavior, officers may become a passive bystander, allowing the situation to continue and only reporting the behavior later (if at all).  In contrast, active bystander training highlights the positive outcomes from intervention and teaches officers how to intervene with fellow officers – without regard for rank – to prevent an escalation that results in community disengagement, violations, injury, misconduct, or worse.  The most widely implemented training of this kind is Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) training. Modeled after the New Orleans Police Department’s EPIC (Ethical Policing is Courageous) training, ABLE training has been provided to 390 agencies across the country, resulting in 2,729 ABLE-certified instructors and over 169,000 ABLE-trained officers. To-date, however, ABLE has not been rigorously evaluated to determine whether the training is effective in achieving it’s intended outcomes. In response, CNA, with the support of Georgetown University’s Center for Innovations in Community Safety (which manages and delivers the ABLE program) proposes a multi-phased approach to evaluating ABLE effectiveness.  In conducting our analysis, we will use agencies that will receive ABLE training in 2025 (prospective group) as well as agencies which have previously received ABLE training (retrospective group).  For the prospective group, we will conduct a randomized control trial to gather data about the training’s success and associated street-level outcome.  We will do this through surveys, video scenarios, and administrative data review.  Additionally, we will use a quasi-experimental retrospective design with agencies that have previously implemented ABLE to gather additional data on street-level outcomes.  Finally, we will use interviews with agency members to understand how officers have incorporated ABLE concepts into their daily operations as well as the organizational supports that agencies have implemented to ensure the success of the program. From our findings, we will develop reports and academic journal articles which will discuss ABLE’s training implementation as well as determine the impact of the training on officer knowledge, perceptions, and behavior, and the training’s organizational impact. CA/NCF