To help achieve our goal of creating a city-wide culture of Cop Watch:

We have created a network open to organizations and ad-hoc groups of community members to join, where they can obtain training, resources and support to conduct Cop Watch in their communities.  These formations are called "network teams" or "teams."

The network includes Peoples' Justice (PJ)-member organizations and non PJ-member organizations and groups that have been trained to conduct Cop Watch by PJ.  Teams must attend a PJ Cop Watch Training prior to joining the network.

Network teams must agree to the PJ Cop Watch Network guidelines and protocol (see above.)  The purpose is not to conduct Cop Watch only once, but rather to create a sustained presence in our communities.  Considering this, network teams should commit to conducting Cop Watch at least 6 times in a year.

Part of the purpose of Cop Watch is to be visible to our community members and to the NYPD.  By identifying ourselves, our community members will not only know who we are, but we will also demonstrate an organized and unified resistance to police misconduct and brutality.  Therefore, teams should wear Cop Watch buttons or clothing and distribute Know Your Rights and Cop Watch materials.   We encourage you to use and disseminate the material produced by Peoples' Justice, though this is not always necessary.

To help achieve our goals of sharing information and holding the police accountable, network teams should provide report-backs and share information, data and footage with the PJ Cop Watch Network Coordinating Body.

Equipment:  Peoples' Justice will maintain video cameras that can be used by network teams.  PJ will develop a calendar of Cop Watch network outings.  We ask that teams pick up equipment within 2 days of each outing and drop equipment off at least 3 days before the next team's outing. We also hope to acquire hand-held radios for network teams to use. As noted above, we will also have Know Your Rights pamphlets and palmcards available for distribution.

Mobilizing Around Cop Watch Team Arrests:  We realize that conducting Cop Watch comes with certain risks.  The police don't want us to watch them as this will challenge their impunity and lack of accountability.  As a result, there may be incidents during which network team members receive summons or are arrested.  In these incidents, Peoples' Justice agrees to publicize the incident/s (if the people involved want us to) to our listserves and organizational bases.  We will encourage people to attend demos, court appearances, etc., but cannot promise numbers or material support.  We recognize though that PJ may have to get more involved if a good number of network teams are being targeted.

Lawyers:  Peoples' Justice will provide a contact sheet of attorneys who have agreed to be "on-call" for our Cop Watch Network.  These are movement and civil rights attorneys who have provided their names and contact information to support network teams in the case that someone/s on the team is arrested (, but not in the case witnessed arrests). They have agreed to appear at arraignments and try to get arrested team members out of jail as quickly as possible.  Network teams should contact attorneys and arrange for them to be "on-call" before each of their outings.

Witnessed Incidents:  Network teams may witness an attack or arrest of someone on the street. Due to our limited capacity, we will not always be able to respond immediately to such incidents.  We will put video footage online and blast emails out from our website and over listserves.  We will create a YouTube account and include posting to that account in the PJ Cop Watch Training.

To find out more about how to participate in PJ's Cop Watch Network, email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it