2012-09-16 "Copwatch instructs Vallejo citizens about their rights in dealing with police"

 from "Vallejo Times-Herald" [http://www.timesheraldonline.com/news/ci_21556449/copwatch-instructs-vallejo-citizens-about-their-rights-dealing]:
Always know your rights.
That was the message Saturday of Andrea Pritchett, co-founder of Berkeley Copwatch, to about 40 people at Wilson Park.
Pritchett came at the behest of Fresno Rev. Floyd D. Harris Jr., who hopes to establish a Vallejo Copwatch in response to this year's officer-involved shootings. Five of them, including that of Mario Romero on Sept. 2, were fatal.
Romero's family, as well as family members of Guy Jarreau, who was shot and killed by Vallejo police in December 2010, were at the meeting.
The training session began in front of the Vallejo Police Department before moving to Wilson Park in order for people to sit down and discuss both what to do when approached by police, and how to document interactions with officers.
"We have a right to refuse a search," Pritchett said.
The Berkeley Copwatch members went over the difference between a consensual encounter with a police officer, being detained and being arrested.
If a police officer is asking permission to search a house or a bag, then a person can say no, Pritchett said.
Additionally, Pritchett said the rights of assembly, due process and freedom from unlawful searches and seizures contained within the Bill of Rights gives people the right to record police officers.
For more information, visit [www.vallejocopwatch.blogspot.com].