DALLAS (1080 KRLD)- The Dallas Police Department has begun a partnership with UNT Dallas to begin a program that aims to reduce mistakes by officers. "Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement" or "ABLE" was first launched at Georgetown University.
In January, the Dallas City Council approved $300,000 to begin the program at the Caruth Police Institute at UNT Dallas.
The program includes three goals: Reduce mistakes, prevent misconduct and promote health and wellness.
"We have to be active in our communities. We have to take the criminal element off the streets, but we also have to get better as a profession," says Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia.
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Garcia says all 3,200 Dallas police officers will take the class over the next year.
"With all the unrest we've seen across the country, we have to understand it is our job to change our profession to be seen in the light we want to be seen," says Sgt. Ira Carter, one of the instructors.
Carter says the training can help officers feel comfortable preventing misconduct. He says officers participate in role-play and training to understand how to report a problem.
"If they do correct something or do report something, they're not going to be ostracized. They're not going to be black-balled," he says. "You're just trying to correct the culture to make sure we're respected as well as respecting the citizens we serve."
While a case like George Floyd may draw national headlines, Carter says most cases may simply involve a call where the officer and subject both get frustrated.
"Those types of situations [like Floyd] don't happen every day," he says. "The situations that do happen every day are the ones where both the officer and the individual they're talking to, tempers may be rising, and maybe there's another officer who comes in and goes, 'Hey, let's calm down a little bit.'"
"One of the things that drew me to ABLE very early on was the fact that it was simple, evidence-based, and it goes directly to what we're looking at improving the culture of policing," says Denton Police Chief Frank Dixon, an ambassador for the Caruth Police Institute.
The Caruth Police Institute is the only location in Texas to offer the training; Dallas is the largest police department in Texas to use ABLE. Garcia, the Dallas police chief, says the project aims to build trust with the community.
"They're not the only ones watching us. We're watching ourselves," Garcia says. "I think that's an important message we're sending to our community. It's important to us. It's important to me."
"For most of them, I'm not teaching them anything new," says Mike Mata, president of the Dallas Police Association and instructor of classes on officers' duties to intervene. "I'm reminding them why we should do what we should ethically do. That means we police ourselves and we interject ourselves when we see situations that don't hold the moral values of our department or the moral values of our community to the standards they need to be in."
Mata says cadets first receive training in the police academy but ongoing training can show the importance of officers getting involved if they see something wrong.
"Prevent it from escalating. Prevent it from getting to something as simple as rudeness from the officer to the community or the community to the officer," he says.
Mata says holding training at UNT Dallas can also help reach young people who represent the next generation of law enforcement.
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