Copwatch: Community Based Police Accountability

Every semester, DeCal: Copwatch, hosted by UC Berkeley DeCal Program and Berkeley Copwatch, invites activists, organizers, academics, lawyers, resisters, rebels, concerned civilians, and family members from communities of struggle across the Bay Area to join us on Monday evenings for facilitated conversations on policing and safety—past conversations have included friends from the Oscar Grant Committee, Stop the Gang Injunctions, Coalition for a Safer San Francisco, Boalt Law School, and many others. This Spring, join us as we address issues that include the OPD and Federalization, Community Control Initiatives, Sit/Lie and Stop and Frisk, militarization and racism, and the ongoing battles for justice by families impacted by police violence, including the Justice for Alan Blueford campaign.


Our facilitators this Spring are Jay Scherf and Andrea Prichett. Here is this Spring’s Course Description:


Through a combination of class presentations by leading activists in the alternative justice movement and direct field monitoring of police on duty, students will experience first hand the complex issues faced by residents caught between high crime in their neighborhoods and the dangers that racial profiling, civil and human rights abuses bring to the community. Students will be trained in basic criminal procedure, power analysis, and techniques for observing police activity. In addition, students will examine the history and origins of police, resistance movements, and community based alternatives to the justice system as we know it.


Write to us at BerkeleyCopwatch [at] yahoo.com for a syllabus, and join us at the Grassroots House on Mondays at 5:30pm for thoughtful conversations that engage struggles going on now. Learn how to safely monitor police, submit a Public Records Act Request, and get signed up for a shift—doing case work, direct monitoring street patrols, tabling with other copwatchers at local events. See you there!