Volunteering
We're always happy to accept volunteers. Copwatch holds monthly meetings. Contact Dale at dalemills (at) cantab.net for more info.
The photo shows one of our volunteers, when we were known as "Human Rights Monitors."
Our history
As long as there has been police misbehaviour, there have been groups and individuals who have tried to keep the police accountable. Many such groups have existed in Sydney.
Searches on the net show that there was a Sydney Copwatch around the time of the Sydney Olympics in 2000, but that group seems to have died out and left no trace. In 2001, "Legal Observers" was set up as a group in Sydney as a response to increased police aggression at political protests. The group took photos and notes of police misbehaviour. In 2002, the group was "auspiced" for a short while by the Community Law and Legal Research Centre at the University of Technology, Sydney, and helped publish a report into the policing of police misbehaviour in 2002 at the NO WTO protests in Sydney.
Since then, "Legal Observers" morphed into "Human Rights Monitors" and now into Sydney Copwatch. The group - ranging in meeting size from 2-30 - decided to drop its focus on protests given the extreme concern over the abuse of young people by the police, the use of sniffer dogs and the widespread introduction of Tasers.
As far as we know, the name Copwatch goes back to the Black Panters in the USA. Before that, we understand that legal observers were used at the anti-fascist rallies in the East End of London in the 1930s by the (English) Council for Civil Liberties. We are happy to link to any sources which document the history of Copwatching.
As long as there has been police misbehaviour, there have been groups and individuals who have tried to keep the police accountable. Many such groups have existed in Sydney.
Searches on the net show that there was a Sydney Copwatch around the time of the Sydney Olympics in 2000, but that group seems to have died out and left no trace. In 2001, "Legal Observers" was set up as a group in Sydney as a response to increased police aggression at political protests. The group took photos and notes of police misbehaviour. In 2002, the group was "auspiced" for a short while by the Community Law and Legal Research Centre at the University of Technology, Sydney, and helped publish a report into the policing of police misbehaviour in 2002 at the NO WTO protests in Sydney.
Since then, "Legal Observers" morphed into "Human Rights Monitors" and now into Sydney Copwatch. The group - ranging in meeting size from 2-30 - decided to drop its focus on protests given the extreme concern over the abuse of young people by the police, the use of sniffer dogs and the widespread introduction of Tasers.
As far as we know, the name Copwatch goes back to the Black Panters in the USA. Before that, we understand that legal observers were used at the anti-fascist rallies in the East End of London in the 1930s by the (English) Council for Civil Liberties. We are happy to link to any sources which document the history of Copwatching.