Portland police will receive $1.1 million for crowd-control munitions, shields and training for handling protests and riots after the City Council’s unanimous authorization Wednesday of an emergency ordinance.
The council’s vote marks the first time police will buy this form of munitions and ramp up crowd-control training since clashes between police and protesters in 2020 resulted in lawsuits, legislation and the U.S. Department of Justice’s intervention.
The million-dollar sum is “essential to ensure public safety as we navigate current events,” Mayor Ted Wheeler told the council Wednesday.
Portland, like many cities, has seen protests in recent months over the Israel-Hamas war, and concerns are rising that the November U.S. presidential election could spark rioting.
Most of the $1.1 million will go to training the specialized crowd-control unit, called the Rapid Response Team, which was re-established in March after a three-year hiatus.
Members of the team will receive at least 8 hours monthly of unit-specific training, Portland Police Bureau Commander Franz Schoening told the council. Within that group, officers designated to use crowd-control munitions will receive additional training.
Munitions training will cover how to use the equipment and de-escalation techniques, as well as bureau directives, Oregon law and constitutional case law, Schoening said.
Portland police also will incorporate alternative crowd-control methods into their approach, such as sending “demonstration liaisons” into the field to facilitate peace and using bicycle officers for limited intervention, Schoening told the council.
Police declined to provide more specifics on the training, saying they would make an announcement in the next few weeks.
Less than $60,000 of the $1.1 million will go to the equipment that became a symbol of the police response to the 2020 protests: $27,700 for 1,150 crowd-control munitions and $28,500 for 100 large plastic shields for the team’s officers to carry, Schoening told the council.
The police will buy tear gas; obscurant; kinetic-impact projectiles, both with and without chemical incapacitants; and flash-sound diversion-and-distraction devices, according to figures provided by the police bureau.
Kinetic-impact projectiles are any kind of rubber or plastic bullet, bean-bag round, sponge round or pellet round. Portland police use sponge rounds and pellet rounds, police Sgt. Aaron Schmautz told The Oregonian/OregonLive. These can be shot from a variety of launchers, including one with the impact of a paintball gun. Being hit by one of these projectiles can cause “welts and red spots,” he said.
The projectiles with chemical incapacitants release powder with the same active ingredient as pepper spray.
Flash-sound diversion-and-distraction devices are small containers with a fuse that create what resembles a large firework in order to disperse a crowd. Obscurants work in a similar way by releasing chemical-free smoke from small canisters, similar to a smoke bomb, Schmautz said.
Portland police still have around 10,000 crowd-control munitions that are set to expire January 2025, Schoening told the council. They were part of the large-scale effort by police to stay stocked during the thick of the often-violent “100 days of protests” that roiled the city in 2020 after police in Minneapolis killed George Floyd.
Criticism of the police response in Portland during that contentious summer put the bureau on the defensive, and in 2021 Rapid Response Team members resigned en masse and claimed they were facing “extreme liability” after one of the members was indicted for striking a protester with a baton.
The U.S. Department of Justice ultimately found Portland police’s response to the unrest violated the city’s 2014 settlement with the federal government over its use of force.
A 2023 independent review of the bureau’s actions three years earlier concluded Portland police relied too heavily on tear gas, projectiles and other potentially dangerous munitions, without enough instructions for when to use these less-lethal weapons.
As a result, the City Council required city approval for police to buy shields and crowd-control munitions. A 2022 state law created specific guidelines for when police can use tear gas, kinetic-impact projectiles and other munitions, such as pepper spray.
Juan Chavez, an attorney at the Oregon Justice Resource Center who has challenged police use of munitions, questioned the lasting impact of the police-reform policies in Portland after 2020 and said crowd-control tactics are designed to intimidate people into not protesting.
Chavez pointed to the Rapid Response Team’s reinstatement — this time with a 6% pay bump for its 40-or-so team members — under the same name.
Kelly Simon, Oregon legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union, criticized the process used to approve the money.
Emergency ordinances require only one reading – and this one occurred right after a public holiday, constituting an “obvious and intentional exclusion of the public,” she said.
Wheeler’s spokesperson Cody Bowman attributed the emergency ordinance to an “urgency to put in our order as soon as possible to ensure we have the equipment and tools needed for training and preparation.”
That training and preparation is something Portland voters have asked for loud and clear through the officials they elected, Schmautz said.
Last week, Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt was defeated in his attempt at re-election by an opponent, Nathan Vasquez, who promised more robust prosecutions. Recent Oregon polling shows 78% of Portland-area voters want their government to do a better job of tackling crime.
“They want a restoration of public order and safety,” Schmautz said.
– Sujena Soumyanath is a reporter on The Oregonian/OregonLive’s public-safety team. You can reach her at 503-221-4309 or ssoumyanath@oregonian.com
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly said kinetic impact projectiles with chemical incapacitants release pepper spray, when in fact they release pepper powder with the same active ingredient as pepper spray.
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