The assault and killing of Tyre Nichols in Memphis outraged us. The video is difficult to watch and is heartbreaking. These actions do not reflect what communities expect from those sworn to serve. Indeed, when we talk with cadets and officers about their service, we hear it is to protect and defend the vulnerable. This tragedy is the opposite of that call to service.
The killing of Tyre Nichols is not just a tragedy, but a call to action. For those of us committed to improving policing, we can do our part by working to avoid unnecessary escalations, increase officer emotional awareness, and empower officers to do something in the face of potential misconduct or unnecessary use of force by other officers.
In Colorado, we are working hard to advance a culture of continuous improvement and create better systems and practices to avoid unnecessary escalations of the use of force. This effort seeks to both improve public safety and help ensure that we are building — rather than undermining — community trust in law enforcement. Without that trust, effective policing becomes impossible.
There are many elements to this work, including ensuring that incident review teams honestly ask: “How could we have done better?” It also means celebrating and sharing best practices and improvements that represent effective policing at its best. It involves committing to evidence-based training that better prepares officers for challenges in the field. It also involves accountability–including being decertified as an officer—when officers engage in misconduct.
Working together, the Attorney General’s Office, the Colorado Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) program, and the Denver Police Department are bringing a nationally recognized training program to Colorado law enforcement agencies — the Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement training, known as ABLE.
The training was launched in 2020 by Georgetown University Law and global law firm Sheppard Mullin, working closely with law enforcement and civil rights leaders across the country. ABLE provides peace officers with the necessary skills to intervene with their fellow peace officers and active bystandership strategies to prevent misconduct, reduce officer mistakes, and promote health and wellness. It is already in place and making a difference in jurisdictions that have implemented it, including the Denver, Pueblo, Thornton, and Durango police departments. Other agencies are considering when they can adopt this training.
To appreciate the value of ABLE, consider the following example from a Colorado police chief about one of his department’s most painful use of force episodes. This situation happened after an officer went right from one traumatic call — where he witnessed child abuse — to another call where he escalated a situation unnecessarily, resulting in inappropriate use of force. That officer ended his career by doing so. But this situation could have been prevented if there were officer bystanders equipped to take action to protect him and the community.
By taking bystander intervention seriously, officers will be ready and willing to step in before or during a physical encounter that threatens to escalate unnecessarily and to intervene with a fellow law enforcement officer who may not be emotionally or mentally ready to respond to a call or perform effectively.
In Colorado, we are positioned to develop norms about how law enforcement officers support one another and take actions to prevent the unnecessary use of force. Too often, unfortunately, officers learn — often through prevailing norms — that they should remain quiet in the face of peer pressures not to speak up. By building a new mindset, which encourages and enables bystander awareness, ABLE promises to fill an essential space in law enforcement officer training.
Serving as a law enforcement officer is an honorable calling and a noble form of public service. When officers fail to recognize the needless escalation of interactions with a member of the public, however, they undermine public safety and trust in law enforcement. In Colorado, we are working towards a culture of mutual accountability and continuous improvement in our law enforcement agencies. Providing access to training opportunities like ABLE is a big part of this mission.
Phil Weiser is the attorney general of Colorado and serves as the chair of the Colorado POST Board. Ron Thomas is chief of police of the Denver Police Department.
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