Page 4 - EPIC Conference Third Annual Program

Dear Conference Attendees,
Welcome (virtually) to our law school. For more than 100 years, the Loyola College of Law has been opening the minds of future law professionals and exposing them to the Jesuit tradition of academic rigor, pursuit of justice, and service to others. At Loyola, we believe in critical thinking and disciplined studies as a means of developing the whole person, — mind, body, and spirit — and encouraging students to become well-rounded people who contribute to the greater good. It is against this backdrop that we give our support to the New Orleans Police Department’s EPIC program.
As a community committed to the Jesuit ideals of justice, equity, and the dignity and humanity of all people, we are immensely saddened by the current state of police/community relations in the United States, and the tragic events that brought us to this point. As a community of law professors, lawyers, and law students, we stand for a law enforcement culture in which all people, regardless of race, are protected, not victimized. We believe in a system of laws that demands justice at every level.
We also believe in the power of EPIC (and active bystandership generally) to prevent the recurrence of such horrific events. EPIC reflects a transformative way of thinking about policing. EPIC educates, giving officers additional tools to do their jobs better and more safely. It exposes officers to well-founded social science research that expands their knowledge and helps them see their interactions with their peers in a different way. Police departments that have embraced EPIC have shared inspiring stories of careers (and lives) saved by what sometimes may be nothing more than a timely hand on a shoulder – and careers lost when none came forward to offer that hand. EPIC opens officers’ hearts and minds to the power of active bystandership and transforms the culture of police departments.
EPIC reminds us of the loyalty we owe to those around us – not blind loyalty, but thoughtful, critical loyalty. And EPIC acknowledges that sometimes showing that loyalty takes courage. Mark Twain famously quipped “it is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.” Those who embrace the principles of NOPD’s EPIC program have embarked on a path to prove Mr. Twain wrong.
Through EPIC, NOPD has sought to develop “the whole person” of the men and women behind the badge just as we at Loyola seek to develop “the whole person” of the men and women who attend our law school – men and women in service to others.
The Loyola New Orleans College of Law is honored to sponsor NOPD’s third annual National Police Peer Intervention Conference. We know you will enjoy the event and leave not only with a better understanding of peer intervention and active bystandership principles, but with an appreciation of how those principles can save careers, save lives, and transform both police departments and the communities they serve.
Thank you for joining us today.
Madeleine Landrieu
Dean, Loyola University New Orleans College of Law
SMRH:4811-4065-2230.1 -1-
3. | Third Annual National Police Peer Intervention Executive Leadership Conference