Edgewater Police Department Attends Active Bystandership Training

From the Edgewater Police Department:

The Edgewater Police Department is proud to announce a partnership with the Georgetown University Law Center for Innovations in Community Safety (CICS) to implement the Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) program.

The ABLE program was developed by CICS and is built on three foundational pillars: to reduce mistakes, prevent misconduct, and promote health and wellness. Training and implementation support is provided by Georgetown Law at no cost to law enforcement agencies, but agencies must commit to creating a culture of active bystandership and peer intervention through policy, training, support, and accountability.

The Edgewater Police Department went through an extensive application process before being accepted into the program. The process included submitting letters of support from community partners which included the Edgewater Collective and the Filipino-American Community of Colorado (FACC). They began training all members of the agency in May and will have 100% of the Department trained by the end of August. “I first became aware of the ABLE program in its partnership with the FBI National Academy Associates several years ago and I committed that if I ever became a police chief, I would bring it to my department,” said Edgewater Police Chief Eric S. Sonstegard. He added, “Our officers face so many challenges on a daily basis and we have to figure out innovative ways to prepare them for those challenges.”

The ABLE Program considers those challenges in preparing officers to intervene to prevent misconduct, avoid police mistakes, and promote officer health and wellness. ABLE teaches officers how to successfully intervene while promoting those who do intervene and authorizes and empowers law enforcement to intervene in another officer’s action regardless of his/her rank.

ABLE’s emphasis on officer health & wellness coincides well with the Edgewater Police Department’s employee wellness initiatives that have been implemented over the past year including:

• A new Department Psychologist that coordinates quarterly training, provides counseling services, and leads post-incident stress debriefings.
• A new Department mobile application for all employees that provides resources at their fingertips for marriage & family counseling, suicide awareness, substance abuse counseling, and financial literacy.
• Participation in the SIGMA Tactical Wellness program which aims to improve the quality of first responders’ lives through the early detection of cardiovascular disease.

“Our community deserves a platinum level of service from its police department. We are committed to doing everything we can to make that happen. I believe in the ABLE principles and what they mean to the noble profession of law enforcement,” added Chief Sonstegard.

If you’re interested in learning more about the ABLE program, you are encouraged to read more at: https://www.law.georgetown.edu/cics/able/.

Joel Newton

Joel has been a resident of Edgewater, Colorado with his family since 2012. He is the Executive Director of local education nonprofit Edgewater Collective and Editor of the Edgewater Echo.