The day before Memorial Day weekend began, Portland City Council abruptly scheduled a May 29 vote to authorize Portland Police Bureau, or PPB, to spend an undisclosed portion of a $1.1 million budget on less-lethal munitions and military-style crowd control shields.
City Council unanimously passed the emergency ordinance May 29 after only three members of the public signed up to testify on an ordinance that likely draws substantial public attention under normal circumstances.
PPB, which needs City Council approval for such purchases due to a 2020 resolution, declined to release any details about the proposed purchases prior to the City Council meeting. The city ultimately approved purchasing 350 tear gas canisters, 50 smoke grenades, 350 impact munitions, 300 impact munitions with chemical irritants and 100 stun grenades, commonly referred to as flash bangs. The munitions costs come out to $27,700.
PPB also requested to purchase 50 long shields and 50 round shields for a total of $28,500.
The purchases are specific to the city reinstating its protest response team, known as the Rapid Response Team, or RRT.
In an apparently unrelated move, the city Office of Management and Finance posted a “notice of sole procurement” April 2 — a nearly $70,000 contract to purchase ballistic shields for PPB’s Special Emergency Reaction Team, or SERT. The ordinance requiring PPB to obtain permission to purchase military-style equipment exempts SERT, the city’s equivalent of a SWAT team that has responded to protests in the past. That notice, by law, means the city can award the contract without competition, and the contract is listed as “award in progress” according to the city’s bidding portal.
The emergency ordinance, heard during City Council’s regular morning meeting May 29, states PPB has not replenished its crowd control inventory since all members of the RRT resigned June 16, 2021, dissolving the unit. The ordinance, which includes mention but not funding of RRT training to use the shields and munitions, does not mention PPB currently has nearly 10,000 less-lethal munitions on hand after a 2020 spending spree, the majority of which likely won’t expire until next summer, according to PPB records.
PPB Commander Franz Schoening confirmed the bureau’s current stockpile during the meeting.
Mayor Ted Wheeler, also the police commissioner, introduced the ordinance, which was recorded to the agenda Friday, May 24, leading into the holiday weekend. As an emergency ordinance, the authorization faced less public scrutiny than the average ordinance, as it only needed to be read one time and immediately took effect on passage
The ordinance states an “emergency exists” to ensure the RRT is equipped to support “safety during public order events, which have become more frequent in recent weeks,” in an apparent reference to student protests at public and private universities in Portland. However, according to PPB’s quarterly munitions inventory report sent to Wheeler on April 1, the bureau currently possesses thousands of crowd control weapons.
Although most munitions will expire over the next two years, it’s unclear why Wheeler and PPB believe an emergency authorization is necessary, given PPB’s extensive stockpile of chemical and impact weapons. Wheeler did not return multiple requests for comment at the time of publication.
Sgt. Kevin Allen, PPB public information officer, said PPB will release more information to the public “when appropriate,” but the RRT is still in the process of formation, training and outfitting. Under another emergency ordinance, City Council voted unanimously to sign a letter of agreement with the PPB union, Portland Police Association, on March 20, creating the new public order team. Officers assigned to the RRT will receive a 6% pay increase to incentivize participation.
City Council passed an ordinance Oct. 11, 2023, authorizing PPB’s Special Resources Division to purchase 12 shields of three types in the 2023-2024 fiscal year. The purchase was explicitly for research and development of PPB crowd control tactics and not for use in the field. The ordinance said PPB intended to assess which types of shields would align with PPB’s crowd control tactics, and it appears the latest purchase is a result of that research.
In direct response to the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, City Council passed a resolution Dec. 9, 2020. The resolution created new authorization procedures for how PPB purchases military-style equipment, including shields, and required PPB to submit quarterly munitions inventory reports to the mayor.
Receipts made available by PPB show it spent at least $444,000 purchasing thousands of less-lethal munitions and crowd control equipment in 2020. Police appear to have spent many of those munitions since, yet maintain a robust stockpile to date.
The first quarter 2024 report shows PPB has 9,624 chemical irritants, impact weapons and riot control agents on hand. That includes 3,662 mace rounds and other impact munitions with chemical irritants; 33 stun grenades, commonly referred to as flash bangs; and 2,161 launchable and hand-thrown tear gas canisters. The report shows PPB also has 2,822 non-irritant impact rounds, like plastic and hard foam rounds; 176 paint rounds; and 770 smoke grenades. All of the munitions in its inventory have a five-year shelf life and expire between 2022 and 2026, according to the inventory report.
Schoening told City Council PPB’s entire crowd control inventory expires in January 2025, contradicting the language of the reports.
“I do not have any more details than is listed (in the quarterly inventory reports),” Allen told Street Roots when asked about the discrepancy after the May 29 City Council meeting.
Allen sought to quell concerns over the potential for PPB using expired munitions on protestors, saying expiring munitions will be utilized during upcoming RRT trainings.
“The aging inventory is the reason we’re being approved to purchase fresh inventory,” Allen said. “We hope that the procurement will alleviate any concerns about use of older munitions.”
The emergency order comes after student protests erupted on college campuses to demand universities discontinue support of the Israeli government amid its military bombardment of Gaza. Since activists began staging demonstrations, PPB responded to multiple protests at Portland State University and ended a days-long occupation of the Branford Price Millar Library in early May, resulting in at least 30 arrests. As protests continue, PPB ramps up its response and its rhetoric. In a May 24 email, PPB Chief Bob Day stated without evidence that student protestors assaulted PPB officers and delayed medical care for PSU Campus Public Safety Chief Willie Halliburton, who had a medical emergency while responding to a May 23 protest.
Civil rights advocates say sending heavily equipped police to respond to protests is a convenient political excuse for failing to de-escalate or negotiate with protesters.
“Police don’t ‘solve’ protests nor make them safer,” Juan Chavez, Civil Rights Project director and attorney at the Oregon Justice Resource Center, said. “These weapons maim people and traumatize them from speaking out further.”
Chavez referenced PPB’s prior responses to the 2020 Black Lives Matter racial justice protests — the catalyst for City Council’s resolution to require its authorization — as a case in point.
“Thousands of people could probably tell you the horror stories wrought by PPB and their weapons from 2020,” Chavez said. “The City clearly learned nothing from that experience.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect the passage of the ordinance, include statements from PPB and clarify the specifics of PPB’s crowd control munitions inventory, as well as a recent procurement order for ballistic shields. The update also corrected the number of tear gas canisters PPB possesses, which is 2,161 canisters. Street Roots regrets this error.
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This article appears in May 22, 2024.
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