CopWatch Minneapolis
WEEKLY MEETINGS
Want to get involved? The best way is to attend our weekly meetings.
CUAPB Weekly Meetings
Every Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
4200 Cedar Ave S, Minneapolis
SUPPORT CUAPB
We're an all-volunteer organization and do a ton of work with people power. However, funds are needed for office costs, phones for our hotline, copwatch equipment, court filing fees, assistance to families dealing with the effects of police brutality, and other expenses.
Q. When did Cop Watch Minneapolis take shape? How does the relationship to the nationwide network of this organization work?
A. Cop Watch Minneapolis has been around on and off since the 1990s. Since CUAPB was founded in 2000, we have created a more consistent Cop Watch presence. There are very occasional national meetings among Cop Watch groups and we have attended them. We also communicate periodically with various CW groups around the country.
Q. How many volunteers are involved at any given time? How can folks get involved? What are the requirements?
A. We do three kinds of CW.
We engage in routine CW in the summer around shelters and at club closing time at locations where police harassment and brutality have been issues.
The second is event CW such as around the Final Four, Superbowl and other events where unsheltered people and others are harassed by police.
The third is training neighborhoods to engage in their own CW. The number of volunteers varies by season and events we're trying to cover. We generally put people in teams of three and have a few teams out and in communication with each other by walkie-talkie or cell phone.
Q. What areas or issues are currently on your minds/radars? What are the greatest areas of need?
A. I wish we had the capacity to CW consistently at homeless encampments. We have only sporadic coverage due to people's schedules.
Q. Would you talk about some of the ways Cop Watch impacts overall community health?
A. Cop Watch provides a presence in the community that increases safety by ensuring police act professionally and documents their conduct when they don't. We also teach people about their rights and help them to assert them during contacts with police.
5 - How does CUAPA fit into the equation?
CUAPB has run CW in conjunction with other organizations since our founding in 2000. We have provided training, equipment (especially in the days before wide access to cell phones), and a repository to catalog and store CW footage. The repository has allowed us to provide footage to attorneys for both criminal defense and civil suits. In addition, we were part of a federal appeals court case, Glick v. Cunniffe, that codified the right of people to document police conduct everywhere in the country and we worked with Minneapolis and St. Paul police departments to write and enact policies making it clear that people have that right and police are not to interfere with it.
6 - Anything else you'd like to get out there?
People have a number of rights in their interactions with police. Sadly, many people give away their rights because they don't know them. Through documenting police conduct, CW has the potential to ensure people's rights are respected and there are consequences when they are not. The video Darnella Frazier captured of the killing of George Floyd is an important example of how documenting police conduct can lead to accountability.
“Cop Watch provides a presence in the community that increases safety by ensuring police act professionally and documents their conduct when they don’t. We also teach people about their rights and help them to assert them during contacts with police.”
WHO
Cop Watch Minneapolis is operated by Communities Against Police Brutality
WHEN
Cop Watch Minneapolis has been around on and off since the 1990’s. CUAPB was founded in 2000.
WHY
Cop Watch provides a presence in the community that increases safety by ensuring police act professionally and documents their conduct when they don't. We also teach people about their rights and help them to assert them during contacts with police.
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