Northside Copwatch is a volunteer run program dedicated to monitoring police activity on the Northside of Chicago. We are a non-violent organization. We document police interaction with the public using cameras, video recorders, and note taking. We also educate the public about their constitutional rights when interacting with the police.Primary Purpose:
To reduce police violence through accountability.
To fulfill this purpose, we have constructed the following goals:
· Directly observe the police on the street
o Watch and document incidents
o Maintain principles of nonviolence while assuring the rights of detained person
o Be a witness for the detained person
o Demonstrate citizen monitoring of police for others observing an incident
o Educate public about police misconduct
· Follow up with public pressure in legal proceedings
o Support police brutality victims in defense of false charges
o Encourage and assist people in filing complaints against police misconduct
o Lobby and use direct action to stop policies that increase police powers over people’s civil and human rights
· Educate the community about their rights by distributing know your rights literature
· Encourage people to exercise their right to observe the police and advocate for one another
· Advocate for the establishment in Chicago of a civilian police review board that is independent of Mayor Daley to investigate police misconduct.
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