Jeffery Norman, the Chief of Police of MPD, is in the process of reshaping the department to make it run more efficient and be more effective. The start of the process is getting involved with an officer training program offered by Georgetown University. The program involves on training officers to intervene and prevent misconduct. This program was created in response to the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. There are requirements that must be met before a department can get into this program. Among the requirements you need to have demonstrated community support and policies in place to protect whistleblowers plus offer wellness resources to officers.
The Chief has talked about changing the culture of the department over the past year. Only Milwaukee and the Superior Police Department in Wisconsin have signed up for the program so far. Nationally more than two hundred departments have signed up like Denver, Boston, and Philadelphia. The standards have been adopted statewide by a few states already. Jim Palmer, the executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, the state’s largest police union, states “At first blush, I think it represents a very promising opportunity for agencies in this state.” “I think you’re going to see more agencies throughout the state and throughout the country that are undergoing this training.”
The department has announced all its sworn members will receive eight hours of the training with annual refresher courses. The program is called the Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) Project. It teaches officers how to intervene and prevent misconduct and mistakes. In addition, it teaches how to promote officer health and wellness, regardless of the rank of the officers involved. The training shows ways of stopping an incident something like you got him but let me manage him from here. You should find a way to let the officer withdraw from a situation without any embarrassment being involved.
This program is a great first step for MPD under Chief Norman and will hopefully help gain more trust with the department and the community. I believe the Chief will have more training in the future that he can continue to build on.