Duty to Intervene

The Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission (WSCJTC) has launched an on-line duty to intervene training to meet Substitute Senate Bill 5066 (SSB 5066). The training is self-guided and will take approximately three hours to complete in Acadis. The bill does not state a specific training that must be completed. WSCJTC’s duty to intervene training is an additional resource but is not mandated nor required.

Peace officers who completed basic law enforcement training prior to January 31, 2022, must receive a training on duty to intervene by December 31, 2023.

The course is designed to help officers protect themselves and one another from mistakes or misconduct and to promote officer health and wellbeing. Using clear explanations, real-world scenarios, and a variety of interactions, the course defines active bystandership and its critical importance to policing, including benefits to individual officers and their agencies. The course explores how peer intervention strategies have been successfully used in other professions, such as aviation and healthcare, and to combat serious social issues, such as bullying, driving under the influence, and sexual violence on college campuses. Also explored is the science behind active bystandership, including several landmark experiments in the social sciences and the brain science behind individual responses in intense or traumatic situations. Finally, the course provides guidance on how officers can recognize and act when they need to intervene on their own behavior or the behavior of other officers. 

Learners will be able to do the following upon completing the course:

• Describe how active bystandership can transform law enforcement’s culture of loyalty to helping each other do the right thing and preventing mistakes and misconduct.
• Describe how peer intervention can support officers’ physical health and wellbeing.
• Describe the requirements of RCW 10.93.190.
• For given scenarios, identify who should speak up or take action as an active bystander.
• Identify how to recognize the need to intervene on oneself or another officer.
• For given scenarios, identify options for intervening to prevent a mistake or misconduct, or to protect an officer’s physical or mental wellbeing.

Duty to Intervene training can be found via Acadis Portal.

Duty to Intervene- Course Number 8898

• Click on Registration.
• Click on “Filters” and type the Keywords “Duty to Intervene” and then Apply.

WSCJTC will only track/maintain documentation for those who have graduated from this course.

Note: If an agency chooses a training outside of WSCJTC, the agency is responsible for tracking each officer completion.

Duty to intervene training opportunities outside of the commission:

• Blue to Gold
• ABLE
• Calibre Press