COPs Program

Citizens' Oversight Projects (COPs) empowers the citizen to take control of a huge government that is seriously out of control. Even those responsible for understanding what these bodies are doing are overwhelmed by the sheer immensity of the problem. However, with citizen volunteers, we can turn an intractable problem into a manageable one.

Our oversight responsibility was well recognized as crucial to our democracy, and was originally called the "Council of Censors". Please see the following website for the historical documents with regard to this organ of our historical founding fathers: Council Of Censors

The framers of the 1776 Pennsylvania constitution did not trust solely to "a mere demarcation on parchment of the constitutional limits of the several departments of government" to protect the people against oppression and tyranny. They introduced a special organ of government for this purpose, called the council of censors. The censors were charged with the duties of inquiring whether the constitution had been preserved inviolate, and whether the government had performed their duties properly without assuming unconstitutional powers. They were also to inquire whether the public taxes had been justly levied and collected, in what manner they had been spent, and whether the laws had been duly executed. They were empowered to send for persons, papers, and records, to pass public censures, to order impeachments, and to recommend to the legislature the repeal of such laws as should appear to them to have been enacted contrary to the principles of the constitution. Furthermore, they were empowered to call by a two-thirds vote a constitutional convention to amend any article of the constitution which might be defective, explain such as might be thought not clearly expressed, and add such as might be necessary for the preservation of the rights and happiness of the people.

In essence, we now understand the genius of the framers and have re-instituted the censors in the form of COPs.

There are two categories of oversight projects

• Govt Oversight - those that oversee specific governmental bodies. As a COPs panelist, you will become a fixture at the meetings of a particular board, council, or other body, or providing oversight to specific elected officials. Read Govt Oversight to learn how to find an appropriate governmental body to oversee.
• Issue Oversight - those that oversee specific political issues or development projects, such as to oversee specific outsourced contracts, work that would normally be done by governmental institutions, but for some reason contracted out to the lowest bidder, or perhaps to a friend or campaign contributor, you know how it works.

In addition to those two Project Types, we also have Infrastructure Projects which deal with the logistics of organizing our work.

Since the start of COPs, we've found that in addition to providing oversight to specific governmental bodies, we wind up engaged in a number of projects. Each project gathers information and other activist citizens who want to help make important changes or to stop projects out of control.

COPs Projects And Citations

• See Common Projects for the deprecated (manual) list
• Add Project: Topic Name:

Government Oversight Projects

Issue Oversight Projects

Infrastructure Projects

Articles and Media: (Add | All Media)

• How to Video Record Public Meetings -- Raymond Lutz, Citizens Oversight, 2009-06-27 Ray Lutz of Citizens Oversight.org explains how to use a digital video camera to video record public meetings.
• AT&T and L.A. City Hall Quietly Lead a National Push to Silence the Little Guy -- Patrick Range Mc Donald, L.A. WEEKLY, 2008-12-11 Public Access TV
• Aguirre to review KPBS documents -- David Hasemyer, Union Tribune, 2007-09-12 Corporate Controlled News? project (should be)
• COPS to police local government boards -- Derek Shaw, East County Californian, 2007-01-11
• Citizen Oversight of Law Enforcement -- Justina Cintrón Perino, ABA Book Publishing, 2006-05 (Not Reviewed)
• Rosenberg's Rules of Order -- ", League Of California Cities, 2003-08-01 COPs Resources

COPs Program Project Infrastructure

• Project Form, Project Topic Template
• Add Project: Topic Name:

-- Raymond Lutz - 07 Jan 2007