Overview

These Streets Are Watchingis a comprehensive, illustrated Copwatch / Know Your Rights nonfiction manual that educates individuals about their rights when stopped or questioned by law enforcement, and how to safely and effectively observe the police.

Anyone, anytime, anywhere in America can find themselves in an interaction with a police officer that has the potential of turning deadly in a moment. These Streets Are Watching is intended to both educate and empower people to make the best decisions when navigating through interactions and incidents involving the police. The information in this book is derived from decades of Copwatch experience and has been field-tested with actual street encounters with police.

These Streets Are Watching is rich with visual material including photos, illustrations, and comic-styled scenarios based on real encounters with law enforcement in areas like Oakland, St. Louis, Baltimore, NYC, Ferguson, and Native American reservations in North and South Dakota, and Minnesota.

Movements

While the information is timeless, this manual provides case studies from such well-known events as the Movement for Black Lives, Standing Rock, and includes other high profile police incidents to bring relevance to both the issues and subsequent protests.

Change requires mass participation. This manual invites everybody to have a seat at the table and provides accessible, referenced, and relevant material that can be easily utilized by individuals and groups in need of information about their rights and best practices when monitoring the police. An educated community enhances individual safety and community security. The underlying issues and information within this manual have the potential to affect us all.

Chapter 1. Slave Patrols and Strike Breakers: The History of the Policing in the US

This chapter timelines the history of police in the US; including the origins of municipal police, the evolution of policing policies and law enforcement involving certain populations, as well as a history of individuals and groups that have taken a stand against police and state violence /repression.

Chapter 2. Your Rights: Legal Rights When Interacting with Law Enforcement

This chapter covers the law, different types of police stops, your rights during these stops, ways and means to assert your rights, and how to document these interactions with the police.

Chapter 3. Copwatching: Rights, Tactics, & Strategies when Observing the Police

This chapter covers how to approach police stops, make your presence known, and act as a deterrent to police misconduct. This chapter covers a variety of scenarios ranging from ordinary individuals observing the police, to more organized copwatch patrols. We also cover how to effectively document incidents should misconduct occur.

Chapter 4. First Responders: Responding to Police Shootings and other Critical Incidents involving the Police

This chapter deals with responding to police shootings, protests, and unrest with the goal of documenting evidence, and supporting victims and witnesses with video. In Police Shootings we describe how to document crime scenes before they disappear, how to to protect witnesses from police harassment, and how to challenge official police narratives. We also go into the effective use of video to preserve evidence during police / crowd control scenarios where the use of force and/or arrests are likely to occur. We also detail how to organize and secure evidence so that it can be used for investigations.

5. Investigations: Conducting independent investigations for criminal or civil cases, or public consumption

This chapter covers how to take evidence from a police stop, copwatch encounter, police shooting, or protest, and process it into evidentiary material. This in turn can be used to ask questions, gather more information, and conduct independent community-led investigations that can hold up in both civil / civil cases, and in the court of public opinion. This chapter also covers different options in releasing investigative material and findings.

WeCopwatch is a nationwide grassroots organization dedicated to educating the public about their rights when interacting with law enforcement, how to safely and effectively document incidents, and how to de-escalate conflicts with the police. We also advocate for victims of police abuse. Through systematic training, education of trainers, and distribution of our Copwatch College / Know Your Rights materials, we seek to maximize our impact by working directly with vulnerable groups and communities. We believe that not only should everybody know their rights when being stopped by the police, but also be prepared to act when questionable police behavior is observed.

Members of WeCopwatch have filmed several high-profile police killings in recent years, including the deaths of Eric Garner in Staten Island and Freddie Gray in Baltimore. Our approach, which combines education, advocacy, and empowerment both on-the-ground and remotely, was recently featured in the documentary film COPWATCH, which premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival and can be watched on Amazon Prime Video.

While our primary focus is on the cities and neighborhoods where we reside, our members frequently deploy to critical incidents elsewhere to document evidence and connect with victims and witnesses. We have provided rapid-response and ongoing support to other cop-watch projects and initiatives in diverse communities, ranging from the streets of Ferguson, Baltimore, and Oakland to the prairies of North and South Dakota. We regularly and proactively conduct community training and support the formation of new cop-watch groups. Our goal is to prepare and empower local first responders when a police incident occurs in their community. You can see a work Bio of WeCopwatch here.