iWATCH is a “community awareness” program and reporting system launched by LAPD in October 2009. iWATCH was launched in direct connection with LAPD’s Special Order No. 11, Reporting Incidents Potentially Related to Foreign or Domestic Terrorism, which was launched in March 2008.
With Special Order 11, LAPD established both a policy and a reporting system to document activities that were deemed to be potentially related to terrorism. The form created to document or report on people deemed to be suspicious was a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR).
Special Order 11 held that police but also community members have a responsibility to prevent terrorism, and those responsibilities include:
Reports of suspicious behaviors could be made directly at a police station, through the LAPD hotline, or online. A police officer taking the report would consider if it warranted a “SAR” in their opinion, and if it did, the cop would enter it as a SAR in LAPD’s Division of Records (DR) database.
The purpose of iWATCH claimed to be educating the public regarding behaviors that might be deemed suspicious and might be connected to terrorism, as well as how a report could be filed. In reality the messaging is even more broad, and encourages Los Angeles community members to report any activities they deem suspicious or that make them uncomfortable - “If you see something, say something.” In this way, iWATCH encourages community spying, profiling people based on race, gender presentation, ethnicity, and other factors, and reporting fellow community members under the guise of “preventing terrorist attacks.”
[Above: A poster from the City of LA LAPD iWatch website.](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXehezOqWMb1y2Oz3VNmwoJrmb-oCa2edVyjKpqcB0X9WwElZFyz6Nl3A0tZJbL9zCkPiCZdzaEzExomkGULvrxEHP27Rf5qk6WiPnvz2Ny0uJqQyD4YjQPkGI2ki52j-MyAJtoQZjgK8dJ8TJmq7JjBbRAO?key=1Xv9r9lvcC9bV4yysWSeJA)
Above: A poster from the City of LA LAPD iWatch website.