U.S. Attorney Kenneth Polite is touting the NOPD’s recently launched peer intervention program known as EPIC or Ethical Policing is Courageous. In an op-ed published today (Oct. 12), Polite called EPIC “a groundbreaking tool for repairing broken community trust.”

NOPD developed the program with the help of nationally renowned experts, community members and the federal consent decree monitor. The department launched the program in early January with a goal of empowering officers on the streets to intervene when they see a colleague doing something wrong or unethical. NOPD leaders, supervisors and many rank-and-file officers have already received EPIC training, and the department is now in the process of training all current officers and new recruits.

Polite noted that EPIC is more than a training module, calling it “a philosophy that will manifest itself throughout the NOPD’s operations and interactions.”

EPIC is already serving as a tool for other police departments across the country to model. The Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) profiled EPIC in a recent national newsletter. The head of PERF, Chuck Wexler, also praised the program this week at the New Orleans Police & Justice Foundation’s annual luncheon.

Wexler called EPIC one of the first of its kind and said it is among several signs that the NOPD "is on offense, rather than on defense."

Click here to read the entire op-ed