Berkeley Copwatch

We conducted our own research on the leaked problematic text messages from BPD Officers in 2022, this is what we found. Read the full report in our bio.

Tonight the Police Accountability Board will meet to discuss and approve the report of their independent investigation into the BPD textgate scandal. Their meetings are open to the public.

This is a moment of truth. After 2 years of BPD dragging their feet and decades more of their obstructions of transparency, will this report and its finding be taken seriously by city government?

In their investigation, the PAB confirmed:
- Yes the leaked text messages were real
- Yes bike officers were being pressured to maximize arrest numbers (aka illegal quotas)
- The arrest rate for Black people was almost four times as high as for White people

In its conclusion, the PAB reports touches on the lack of cooperation and transparency by the Berkeley Police Department:

“The PAB thus recommends, as a key priority, that City Council enact an Ordinance or other mechanism to ensure that this oversight body—which has sworn an oath of confidentiality—has the authority to access internal BPD records in the interest of preventing such damaging practices in the future” (PAB report, pg 28)

Berkeley Copwatch also did an investigation into the Textgate scandal and released our report in January 2024.

Read our report and more about Textgate at
berkeleycopwatch.org/textgate

Tonight the Police Accountability Board will meet to discuss and approve the report of their independent investigation into the BPD textgate scandal. Their meetings are open to the public.

This is a moment of truth. After 2 years of BPD dragging their feet and decades more of their obstructions of transparency, will this report and its finding be taken seriously by city government?

In their investigation, the PAB confirmed:
- Yes the leaked text messages were real
- Yes bike officers were being pressured to maximize arrest numbers (aka illegal quotas)
- The arrest rate for Black people was almost four times as high as for white people

In its conclusion, the PAB reports touches on the lack of cooperation and transparency by the Berkeley Police Department:

“The PAB thus recommends, as a key priority, that City Council enact an Ordinance or other mechanism to ensure that this oversight body—which has sworn an oath of confidentiality—has the authority to access internal BPD records in the interest of preventing such damaging practices in the future” (PAB report, pg 28)

Berkeley Copwatch also did an investigation into the Textgate scandal and released our report in January 2024.

Read our report and more about Textgate at
berkeleycopwatch.org/textgate

If we don’t shut this down, selective enforcement against our unhoused neighbor is gonna get even worse in Berkeley. It already is.

Grants Pass rolled back years of protective legislation that said cities have to provide shelter options and cannot simply ban people from sleeping on the street if they have nowhere to go. With the Grants Pass ruling, the Supreme Court said “Go ahead. It’s not okay to make it illegal to be unhoused”

NEW DATE: TUE JULY 23 at 7-9pm: Copwatching at Protests and Preparing for Arrests

This training is part 2 in a training series. You don’t need to attend part 1 though, everyone is welcome! (Check out Part 1: TUE JULY 2 at 7-9pm: Basic Copwatching techniques and intro to Copwatch and your rights)

Our trainings are offered free to the public. Please spread the word! We encourage all people, with any amount of prior knowledge or experience, to attend these trainings and contribute your questions and wisdom. If you would like a training for your org/group, contact us and we will do our best to accommodate.

Location: 2022 Blake St. Berkeley (Grassroots House). These trainings will be conducted in person.

Accessibility: we will meet in the back room of the Grassroots House. There is a ramp at the front of the house. Masking recommended but not required.

Racist leaked texts from BPD officers in 2022 reveals a pattern of racist policing in Berkeley. Read our full Textgate research report in our bio.

WED JULY 10 at 7-9pm: Copwatching at Protests and Preparing for Arrests

This training is part 2 in a training series. You don’t need to attend part 1 though, everyone is welcome! (Check out Part 1: TUE JULY 2 at 7-9pm: Basic Copwatching techniques and intro to Copwatch and your rights)

Our trainings are offered free to the public. Please spread the word! We encourage all people, with any amount of prior knowledge or experience, to attend these trainings and contribute your questions and wisdom. If you would like a training for your org/group, contact us and we will do our best to accommodate.

Location: 2022 Blake St. Berkeley (Grassroots House). These trainings will be conducted in person.

Accessibility: we will meet in the back room of the Grassroots House. There is a ramp at the front of the house. Masking recommended but not required.

PART 1: TUE JULY 2 at 7-9pm: Basic Copwatching techniques and intro to Copwatch and your rights

PART 2: WED JULY 10 at 7-9pm:Copwatching at Protests and Preparing for Arrests

Attendance to Part 1 is not required to attend Part 2!

Our trainings are offered free to the public. Please spread the word! We encourage all people, with any amount of prior knowledge or experience, to attend these trainings and contribute your questions and wisdom. If you would like a training for your org/group, contact us and we will do our best to accommodate.

Location: 2022 Blake St. Berkeley (Grassroots House). These trainings will be conducted in person.

Accessibility: we will meet in the back room of the Grassroots House. There is a ramp at the front of the house. Masking recommended but not required.

San Pablo Cop City - also known as the San Pablo Regional Training Facility - is a $43 million police militarization project approved by the San Pablo City Council in 2021. 

The facility is planned to include a K-9 holding and training area, a 20-lane indoor shooting range and a drone technology deployment center.

While Cop City would be located in San Pablo, it would undoubtedly buttress the police state across the Bay Area. 

It is not too late to stop construction!! 

This Monday, June 1st, from 9am-12pm we are flooding the phone lines of Overaa, the general contractor for the Cop City project.

UC Berkeley police brought tear gas canisters to SF County Jail to be used for training purposes. The tear gas spread to a nearby elementary school where 20 children and one adult experienced burning sensations from the gas.

Police training is pollution and harms communities.

Even though Berkeley has banned the use of tear gas, they still have it in their stockpile and we can’t be sure city council won’t simply lift this ban under whatever they decide counts as “extreme circumstances”

No one is safe as long as any police department could use tear gas, because the wind carries that s**t.

Meet at 7pm at the Grassroots House (2022 Blake St, Berkeley)

No experience needed + all are welcome. We will meet for a mini training and then split into groups of 3-5, either into cars or walking, each group will have one experienced copwatcher facilitating.

This is a chance for us to teach our shifts practice: listening to the scanner, how to copwatch as a team, incident documentation, entry into our database, and more.

We hope that people will take what they learn into their daily lives AND join copwatch for some of our weekly shifts! We are always seeking to train up more shift facilitators.

Accessibility info: Meet in the backroom of Grassroots House. There is a ramp at the front. Masks are encouraged.

rsvp link in bio

what we will cover:

our mission + vision
how we get stuff done
our ongoing projects

you will leave with:

our handbook + other literature
next steps to get involved

thank you to everyone who came out💕

Hope to see you Sunday! Bring a friend :)

Remember these horrible leaked anti-homeless and racist texts from Berkeley police officers? These texts scratch the surface of the harm this department does. Read our Textgate Report. Link in bio.

Report police misconduct! Join us on our intake shifts and add to our growing People’s Database tracking Berkeley police.

Demand an end to the campaign of city sponsored intimidation and brutality. Speak out at City Council meeting tomorrow (10/3). Rally 5:30 pm, council meeting starts 6:00 pm. 1231 Addison Street.

See video in our reels:
Less than 72 hours after BPD shut down the Chess Club (a community mainstay on Telegraph Ave), the organizer Jessie Sheehan was brutally arrested. For hours, he was disappeared into the system, tortured, abandoned at a hospital in Pleasanton, and then cited and released. In this video, Jessie is being lifted by his wrists after having sustained injuries from being assaulted.

Read Copwatch’s full press release and watch the footage from the incident at the link in our bio.

Read Copwatch’s full press release and watch footage from the incident at the link in our bio.

In 2017, BPD Officer Richard Marble racially profiled, cuffed and pushed a Black man to the ground without probable cause. Five years later, he pulled a gun on two Black men while he was off duty. How many more incidents is BPD sitting on?
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STOP THE SWEEPS- Care First Cops Last
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Meet the people who watch the cops, get the latest updates from copwatch, and learn about your rights interacting with police. Know Your Rights training from 12pm-2pm. Community Cookout from 2pm-4pm (Veggie options! Free, donations welcome). Come for some or all!

Sunday, September 10, 12pm-4pm
Grassroots House, 2022 Blake St. Berkeley

RSVP here: http://bit.ly/47LWJLT

Accessibility: Ramp to house. Access to yard from street. Masks required indoors, we will have extra.
Contact for questions: [email protected]

Once again Berkeley’s city government sides with the police and against justice.

URGENT!!!
City Council is planning to cut $1 million from the Specialized Care Unit/Re-imagining Public Safety budget. Join the council meeting TONIGHT to remind them of their past promises and ongoing responsibility to this city’s people.
More info on the meeting and how to attend in our linktree.

Know your rights! Learn tips for documenting police in protest situations. Join us Wednesday, August 10 at 6:30pm to learn your rights in police interactions, strategies for documenting police, and specific tips for copwatching at protests.

When: Wed. August 10 from 6:30pm - 8:30pm
Where: Grassroots House (2022 Blake St. Berkeley)
The training will be held indoors. Masks are required.

People's Park Community

Today, Wednesday, July 6 @ 5pm
Starting @ Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park, Berkeley

People's Park Community
Defend People's Park

TODAY @ 4pm, at the special meeting of Berkeley City Council,
Please tell City Council to VOTE NO ON ITEM 1!

Item 1:
Contract: Axon Enterprise, Incorporated, [formerly known as TASER], for Body Worn Cameras, Storage and Software
From: City Manager
Recommendation: Adopt a Resolution authorizing the City Manager to enter into a Contract with Axon Enterprise, Incorporated to provide body worn cameras, equipment, software, and services for an amount not to exceed $1,115,000 over the next five years through Fiscal Year 2027.

Axon signed something saying they are not in violation of Berkeley’s “Sanctuary City Contracting Ordinance.” If a company who hired the former director of ICE and has a contract with CBP is not in violation of the sanctuary city ordinance, then there needs to be a stronger sanctuary ordinance. STOP FUNDING PEOPLE WHO ARE INVOLVED WITH ICE AND BORDER PATROL.

Tell City Council:
FIND A DIFFERENT COMPANY FOR THIS CONTRACT.

STOP DOING BUSINESS WITH PEOPLE AND COMPANIES INVOLVED WITH ICE AND CBP!

STOP FUNDING PEOPLE WHO TERRORIZE BLACK, BROWN, AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLE!

MAKE A SANCTUARY ORDINANCE THAT WON’T ALLOW BERKELEY TO BE INVOLVED WITH ICE AND CBP ON ANY LEVEL.

For the Zoom link and agenda to the meeting, scan the QR code on the flyer or go to https://bit.ly/SpecialCouncilMeeting6-21 .

“To access the meeting remotely: Join from a PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, or Android device: Please use this URL https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81179114559. If you do not wish for your name to appear on the screen, then use the drop down menu and click on "rename" to rename yourself to be anonymous. To request to speak, use the “raise hand” icon by rolling over the bottom of the screen.
To join by phone: Dial 1-669-900-9128 or 1-877-853-5257 (Toll Free) and enter Meeting ID: 811 7911 4559. If you wish to comment during the public comment portion of the agenda, Press *9 and wait to be recognized by the Chair.
Please be mindful that the teleconference will be recorded as any Council meeting is recorded, and all other rules of procedure and decorum will apply for Council meetings conducted by teleconference or videoconference.
To submit a written communication for the City Council’s consideration and inclusion in the public record, email [email protected].”

[ Image is black with a red line at the bottom and a red circular shape at the top. The Berkeley Copwatch logo is in the top right, with a black circle and red outline. On the bottom right is a QR code. Black, white, and red lettering says today, at the special meeting, June 21 @ 4pm, tell Berkeley City Council: Stop doing business with people involved in Immigration & customs enforcement (ICE) and border patrol (CBP); vote no on item 1!
Item 1 on the action calendar is a contract with Axon for body worn cameras & technology.
Axon hired the former director of Ice in 2021
Axon has a 13 million dollar contract with CBP.
Vote NO on item 1.
Tell City Council to put peoples’ lives ahead of money!
Scan code to get to zoom link and agenda.]

TONIGHT, June 14 @ 6pm
Please tell CITY COUNCIL TO VOTE NO ON ITEM 23!

Item 23 on the Consent Calendar:
Contract: Axon Enterprise, Incorporated, [formerly known as TASER], for Body Worn Cameras, Storage and Software
From: City Manager
Recommendation: Adopt a Resolution authorizing the City Manager to enter into a Contract with Axon Enterprise, Incorporated to provide body worn cameras, equipment, software, and services for an amount not to exceed $1,115,000 over the next five years through Fiscal Year 2027.

Tell City Council:
FIND A DIFFERENT COMPANY FOR THIS CONTRACT.
STOP DOING BUSINESS WITH PEOPLE AND COMPANIES INVOLVED WITH ICE AND CBP!
STOP FUNDING PEOPLE WHO TERRORIZE BLACK, BROWN, AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLE!

For the Zoom link and agenda to the meeting, scan the QR code on the flyer or go to https://bit.ly/June14councilmeeting.

[Alternate Text: Image is black with a red line at the bottom and a red circular shape at the top. The Berkeley Copwatch logo is in the top right, with a black circle and red outline. On the bottom right is a QR code. Black, white, and red lettering says today, June 14@6pm tell Berkeley City Council: Stop doing business with people involved in Immigration & customs enforcement (ICE) and border patrol (CBP); vote no on item 23!
Item 23 on the consent calendar is a contract with Axon for body worn cameras & technology.
Axon hired the former director of Ice in 2021
Axon has a 13 million dollar contract with CBP.
Vote NO on item 23.

Raise hand during public comment for consent calendar

Scan code to get to zoom link and agenda.]

Call for copwatchers tomorrow morning, Wednesday, April 27th @ 7:30am!

Residents at 2nd & Page in West Berkeley were given only 24hrs of notice to clear the area completely by April 27. We are looking at possible (1) disposal of personal property/survival equipment, (2) impounding of vehicle homes. We need documentation to hold the city accountable & support residents.

The notice cites BMC 1.24.040 ("Any nuisance which the City reasonably determines to be imminently dangerous to the life, limb, health, or safety of the occupants of the property or to the public" may be removed).

On the public notice it says, "it is your responsibility to retrieve anything of value from the interior of the vehicle prior to this date, or it will be removed along with the vehicle"

This is really concerning! Vehicle residents in other parts of Berkeley are currently pursuing legal action against the city for similar practices. Why were residents given only 24hr notice to completely relocate? What makes their HOMES a "nuisance" that threatens p***c safety??