A Duty to Intervene: A Descriptive Evaluation of Street-Level Bureaucracy and Officer Readiness to Engage in Peer Intervention

Police officers regularly serve as street-level bureaucrats, exercising discretion that can either safeguard or erode public trust in governance. When that discretion is directed toward intervening in a colleague's harmful or unlawful behavior, it can uphold constitutional rights and strengthen institutional legitimacy. Drawing on Street-Level Bureaucracy (SLB) theory and bystandership theory, this study examines officers' readiness to intervene in peer misconduct following participation in the Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) training program. Using training surveys from a multi-state dataset of 1,982 ABLE-trained officers, findings identify several individual and organizational factors associated with officers’ post-training intervention confidence and professional risk perception after accounting for their baseline levels. These results underscore the potential of cognitive and skills-based training as a precursor to behavioral and, ultimately, organizational cultural change.