Active bystander training for law enforcement garnering national attention

WASHINGTON - The tragic killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis Police Officer has shed light on police practices and protocols across the country. Millions of Americans wondered why the other officers on scene simply stood by and did nothing to stop it.

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Now there's a new local program in the D.C.region that's garnering National attention on the issue.

"Every officer has gotten training on how to get into a gun fight at the Academy, but they haven't had training on telling each other hey don't do what you're doing," said attorney Jonathan Aronie.

'If they understood what was inhibiting them from taking those steps it is highly likely that situation would've gone much differently and hundreds of thousands of other ones that were less graphic and tragic," said Aronie.

Aronie is leading what's called: "ABLE" the Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement project, a collaboration between Georgetown University and Sheppard Mullin law firm.

"There's a lot of science in the training as to why people don't intervene and understanding those inhibitors and then learning practical tactics to overcome them makes all the difference," said Aronie.

When it comes to building trust between law enforcement and certain communities, Aronie says this training helps transform culture.

"It redefines loyalty. Instead of loyalty meaning I will cover for you no matter what, loyalty means I will keep you out of the trouble in the first place. No matter when you intervene it can help help prevent harm, and it can help the officer," said Aronie.

Roughly 3 dozen law enforcement agencies have taken on the training in the US, including several in the DMV such as the Alexandria County Sheriff's Department.

Chief Deputy Superintendent John Thomas from the New Orleans Police Department spoke to Fox 5, about the effectiveness of this training and whether or not his 1200 officers are participating.

"I hear about it quite often, and a lot of times it's so subtle but if you watch the body camera videos we can actually see when an officer intervened," said Thomas.

We asked if officers feared retaliation from superiors if they intervened,

"Through all the training we haven't seen that... in fact some of the supervisors who got intervened on have thanked the officers who saved their career. They thanked them for saving them from doing something incorrect," said Thomas.

The Deputy Chief adds that all officers, and supervisors often wear a program PIN signaling to others that it's OK to intervene on them, and check them if they are making an error.

This allows officers to gain more confidence to say something.

At a time when our nation is crying out for social reform, and an end to Police brutality Chief Deputy Thomas is hopeful that programs like ABLE can make a difference.

"My hope is that we don't have another George Floyd or Eric Garner. I hope that officers will intervene and tell their fellow officers.... I'll take this one," he said.

Agencies are make a commitment to the training-- and it starts at the top. They must get 4 letters of support from community groups and even their city's mayor just to simply apply.