Page 8 - Second Annual EPIC Conference Brochure

Dear Friends,
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is thrilled to partner with the men and women of the New Orleans Police Department to bring you the second annual EPIC peer intervention conference. As law enforcement leaders across the country have come to recognize, changes are long overdue in American policing to better protect both the public and police officers themselves. We are confident NOPD’s commitment to the principles of active bystandership will go a long way toward protecting both groups.
Active bystandership is a simple concept with potentially profound implications that extend well beyond policing. As this conference’s keynote speaker Dr. Ervin Staub tells us, “each of us has great potential power to help others in need, to influence fellow witnesses when action is needed, to become active bystanders.” We are hopeful that the EPIC program heralds a new model for policing that will ultimately lead to safer, more just, and more effective law enforcement.
At the SPLC, our passion for helping others is driven by the knowledge that, to paraphrase Edmund Burke, evil triumphs when good men and women do nothing. NOPD’s EPIC program is the embodiment of the flip side of Mr. Burke’s coin: virtue triumphs when good men and women act. The SPLC is excited to be a part of this trail-blazing application of active bystandership and peer intervention principles to policing. We look forward to the conference and hope that the principles that underlie the EPIC program are embraced and adopted by departments around the country.
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Lisa Graybill
Deputy Legal Director
Criminal Justice Reform
Southern Poverty Law Center, New Orleans
Fighting Hate Teaching Tolerance Seeking Justice
Southern Poverty Law Center 400 Washington Avenue Montgomery, Alabama 36104 334-956-8200 www.splcenter.org
7. | Second Annual National Police Peer Intervention Executive Leadership Conference