Announcement: Sunsetting the People's Response Team 

In 2016, members of We Charge Genocide launched the People’s Response Team to shine a light on police violence in Chicago and to support those directly impacted. In addition to those two key functions, PRT also developed a series of trainings and resources to give people the tools they needed to do this work in their own communities. As of the summer of 2018, the People’s Response Team is no loner active. The resources developed, research and reporting undertaken by the People’s Response Team has been memorialized on this website, which is maintained by AFSC Chicago but is not regularly updated. Please continue to use/adapt these trainings in your communities as needed, and note the last update to these resources occurred in late 2017/early 2018. 

4/29/2020 - Black Agenda Report Abolition & Mutual Aid Spotlight: Timmy Chau


An interview with former PRT member Timmy Chau reflecting on mutual aid, chicago-based police violence, with some reflection on the work of PRT. 
"For those who don’t know, Chicago is a highly segregated city, where limited access to resources  and services for poor black people has long, historical roots. The borders that separate communities with and without access to the vast majority of Chicago’s economic resources are patrolled and enforced by the Chicago Police Department (CPD) – whether it’s through the extra-judicial murder of black and brown people in poor neighborhoods, or through increased surveillance and harassment of poor Black and brown people being pushed out of gentrifying neighborhoods. At PRT, we facilitated trainings on basic legal rights when interacting with police, cyber-security, anti-raid, and anti-deportation tactics. We led city-wide campaigns for police accountability and transformative demands. We worked in deep collaboration with local partners, namely, Black Lives Matter-Chicago, to respond to police violence and coordinate support." - Timmy Chau

Who We Are


​The People’s Response Team is a multi-racial, intergenerational group committed to supporting efforts to end police violence in Chicago. We seek to RESPOND as soon as possible to violence by law enforcement in Chicago, to DOCUMENT and counter mainstream media and law enforcement narratives, and to CONNECT families and loved ones of victims of law enforcement violence with resources and organizations that provide support during this traumatic time. We do not collaborate with or talk to law enforcement. 

Who We Work With
We work in partnership with Justice for Families, a working group of Black Lives Matter-Chicago that provides immediate and long-term support for families who’ve lost loved ones to police murder. Many of us are already organizing against police/state violence in Chicago as members of Assata’s Daughters, the Chicago Community Bond Fund, National Lawyers Guild - Chicago, For the People Artists Collective, Organized Communities Against Deportations, Love & Protect, and more.

Our Training
We have been trained by the Anti-Police Terror Project’s First Responders Team, a powerful rapid response team in Oakland, CA, led by Black women of the Anti-Police Terror Project. We've also received training on responsible investigations by a member of the People's Law Office in Chicago, IL.

Recent Resource Uploads:
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  • Qué Hacer y Qué No Hacer en la participación de espectadores (.pdf)
  • Viglar a la Policia 101 (.pdf)
  • Consejos para Vigilar a la Policía (.pdf)
  • Do's and Don'ts for Bystander Intervention (.pdf)​​