Copwatch and Internal Affairs have been set up in order to help stop instances of police misconduct. Copwatch is a network of volunteer organizations. People in communities volunteer to follow cops around, by car or by foot, in order to make sure police aren’t violating the rights of citizens. Copwatch generally tries to videotape incidents of police brutality rather than directly intervene. Copwatch also tries to inform the public of their civil rights (“Copwatch”). However, Copwatch has no central governing body. Copwatch has no actual authority over police. Copwatch is also not a very large group, so the members cannot be everywhere to monitor all cases of police brutality.

Internal Affairs, on the other hand, is division of the police department set up to investigate and discipline police misconduct. However, there have been a lot of problems with Internal Affairs showing bias in favor of police, and many offenses were overlooked. In order to prevent this, many police departments across the country have tried to separate Internal Affairs from the rest of the department. Internal Affairs agents may now answer to the head of the Internal Affairs agency or a board of civilian police commissioners rather than to the chief of police. Internal Affairs agents must also follow a very strict set of rules when conducting investigations. Currently, Internal Affairs is mistrusted by both corrupt and honest cops; it is not given much cooperation (“Internal Affairs”). There is a low level of cooperation given to Internal Affairs by police, mainly because cops feel they are being prevented from doing their job. This makes it is hard for Internal Affairs to successfully conduct investigations. Despite efforts by Internal Affairs, police misconduct is still commonplace.