Louisiana State Police Joins ABLE Project Training and Support Initiative

Baton Rouge, Louisiana – The Louisiana State Police announced on September 29, 2022, that they had been accepted into the Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) Project™, a national training and support initiative for U.S. law enforcement agencies committed to building a culture of peer intervention that prevents harm.

Louisiana State Police has joined a select group of more than 215 other law enforcement agencies and training schools from around North America by demonstrating a clear commitment to transformational reform with support from local community groups and elected leaders.
The evidence-based, field-tested ABLE Project was established by Georgetown Law’s Center for Innovations in Community Safety with the support of major civil rights and law enforcement leaders. ABLE, in cooperation with global law firm Sheppard Mullin LLP, offers law enforcement officials with practical active bystandership ideas and tactics to avoid wrongdoing, reduce mistakes, and promote health and wellness.

ABLE provides officers with the tools they need to overcome the intrinsic and powerful obstacles that all people experience when called upon to intervene in the activities of their peers.

“Joining the ABLE Project reflects important priorities for LSP,” said Colonel Lamar Davis, Louisiana State Police Superintendent. “While I am proud of the work that we have done to this point, there is much more still to do, and I am convinced that ABLE will provide the training and tools necessary to embrace, promote, and sustain this culture change.”
Those backing the Louisiana State Police’s application to join the program included Governor John Bel Edwards, Innocence Project New Orleans, and the Holy Ghost Catholic Church of Opelousas, who wrote letters of support.

“We understand that law enforcement’s ability to secure and maintain the trust of the citizens of Louisiana is extremely critical,” said Governor Edwards. “I believe that LSP’s effort to secure an ongoing training program will ensure that its personnel understand the culture in which they are expected to operate and how best to serve the community.”
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.”

Sheppard Mullin partner Jonathan Aronie, who chairs the ABLE Project Board of Advisors, said, “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 led by a Board of Advisors comprised of civil rights, social justice, and law enforcement leaders, including Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw, 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 list of other police leaders, rank and file.

Every month, ABLE Project Train-The-Trainer events are held. Louisiana State Police instructors will be qualified as ABLE trainers by the end of September. Over the next few months, all Troopers will get 8 hours of evidence-based, active bystandership training meant not only to avoid injury but also to improve the policing culture.

More information about the ABLE Project can be found by following this link.