After the ashes of the watts rebellion of 1965 a new group formed in Los Angeles called the Community Alert Patrol. The group made up of young black men would travel in cars and patrol black neighborhoods of L.A., montioring and recording police activity and reporting back to responsible social agencies.
Article published in August 1966 details a ride along with the group
https://libraries.ucsd.edu/farmworkermovement/ufwarchives/sncc/16A-August 1966.pdf
Excerpt taken from Prophets of Rage: The Black Freedom Struggle in San Francisco, 1945-1969 by Daniel E. Crowe
The Panthers began their protest against police brutality with there now infamous patrols. Los Angeles’s Community Alert Patrol had been organized after the watts riots of 1965, and Seale remembered hearing of black men wearing armbands and armed with tape recorders and law books, who observed police in order to keep them from brutalizing black civilians. The Panthers drew upon this tactic and a similar one developed by Mark Comfort and the Oakland Direct Action Committee (ODAC), adding shotguns and pistols to the mix, and began following police cars around Oakland.
Article published in August 1966 details a ride along with the group
https://libraries.ucsd.edu/farmworkermovement/ufwarchives/sncc/16A-August 1966.pdf
Excerpt taken from Prophets of Rage: The Black Freedom Struggle in San Francisco, 1945-1969 by Daniel E. Crowe
The Panthers began their protest against police brutality with there now infamous patrols. Los Angeles’s Community Alert Patrol had been organized after the watts riots of 1965, and Seale remembered hearing of black men wearing armbands and armed with tape recorders and law books, who observed police in order to keep them from brutalizing black civilians. The Panthers drew upon this tactic and a similar one developed by Mark Comfort and the Oakland Direct Action Committee (ODAC), adding shotguns and pistols to the mix, and began following police cars around Oakland.