Portlanders are paying millions to resolve previous incidents of police violence at protests. Current events tee up a potential repeat.
The city has paid over $9.1 million in legal fees and payouts for protest violence perpetrated by the Portland Police Bureau, or PPB, since May 2020. Most of that money settled incidents that took place in 2020, according to the latest figures obtained by Street Roots from the city of Portland’s office of budget and finance.
In 2020, thousands protested night after night. Those protests and the response from local police and federal agents resulted in numerous changes to state and local laws restricting police violence, as well as court cases that clarified those limits.
With threats directed at Portland by the federal government and the potential for a revived protest era ahead, Street Roots looked at the weapons police have and what they can and can’t do to quell protests.
Tens of thousands marched in the streets parallel to Portland’s Waterfront Park on June 14 for a “No Kings” protest, while hundreds regularly meet face-to-face with federal agents outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, building off South Portland’s Macadam Avenue. By PPB’s own assessment, the protests have remained largely peaceful. But federal agents have repeatedly used less-lethal weapons against protestors at the ICE building, covering the surrounding neighborhood in chemical and impact munitions.
For some, PPB’s close proximity with federal agents creates uncertainty around how local police coordinate with federal agencies. But there are parameters on police action. Local, state and federal laws; the Oregon and U.S. Constitutions; and decisions from federal judges in Oregon as well as the U.S. Supreme Court govern how officers can legally respond to protests. While the laws give officers broad authority to quell protests, legal experts say understanding them can empower those using their voices in uncertain times.
That understanding also provides a baseline for accountability.
Litigation and settlements
PPB faced numerous changes to its policies after officers responded with overwhelming use of force during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. Lawsuits civil rights organizations have filed since then won financial compensation for protestors, and also notably changed laws governing how PPB officers are allowed to respond to those voicing dissent — and those documenting it.
Local police have the authority to enforce Oregon laws, but also must comply with both the state and federal constitutions, said Kelly Simon, legal director for the ACLU of Oregon. And legal observers and the media have “a constitutional right to observe, document, and report on public order events,” city administrative rules affirm. PPB cannot legally detain or arrest any clearly identified legal observer or member of the media solely for their role in observing, capturing or reporting on events, and officers are not allowed to interfere with their work. Still, legal observers and the media can be arrested if they participate in illegal behavior.
Those rules are a result of multiple legal claims arguing PPB violated laws in its previous responses to protests.
In one case, the ACLU of Oregon filed a lawsuit June 28, 2020 on behalf of local journalists and legal observers who police targeted during Black Lives Matter protests. After nearly five years in court — while the city operated under a preliminary injunction barring it from assaulting neutral parties like journalists and legal observers — the parties reached a nearly $1 million settlement approved by City Council.
The payout came March 5 of this year, but the lawsuit had a larger effect: during litigation, the city changed PPB directives to bar officers from assaulting neutral parties.
A court order from a federal judge in Oregon later upheld by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals protects neutral observers from assault or arrest. U.S. District Court Judge Michael Simon issued an injunction in the case Index Newspapers v. U.S. Marshals and City of Portland barring officers from targeting neutral parties or ordering them to disperse from protests.
“The Court must balance and weigh the equities and public interest,” Judge Simon wrote in his Aug. 20, 2020 ruling. “The fact that a few people may have engaged in some unlawful conduct does not outweigh the important First Amendment rights of journalists and legal observers and the public for whom they act as surrogates.”
The 9th Circuit paused that injunction after the government appealed in August 2020, then reinstated it in October 2020. PPB changed its directives to include the protections for neutral parties. And after federal officers left the city, the 9th Circuit rendered the injunction moot.
Kelly Simon, ACLU of Oregon legal director and an attorney on the case, said even though the order is no longer in place, she expects a court would decide similarly moving forward, if another similar lawsuit became necessary. She said the court’s opinion set a strong precedent for Oregon and other states.
“Journalists and legal observers have a right to document,” Simon said. “And let’s remember why we have a free press in the first place. The function of serving as the independent eyes of the public on a government like this one has never been more valuable, and the Ninth Circuit protected that right. So, the federal government needs to respect that right when it’s engaging in protecting federal buildings or other functions.”
In another case, local social justice organization Don’t Shoot Portland filed a class action lawsuit June 5, 2020 to stop the City of Portland — namely, PPB — from using chemical weapons against crowds of protestors, saying the use of those weapons violated the First and Fourth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. U.S. District Court of Oregon Judge Marco Hernandez granted a limited injunction Dec. 21, 2022, requiring PPB to stop using and decommission all rubber bullets and only deploy tear gas consistent with PPB directives. That means officers can only use tear gas when an incident commander authorizes its use, and after giving the crowd two warnings to disperse.
Simon, the ACLU legal director, said the Fourth Amendment requires law enforcement to justify each and every instance of force against a person and prohibits indiscriminate action.
“When we see these indiscriminate tactics, whether it’s tear gas, pepper balls shot across the ground or across at higher levels — chest levels, head levels — those tactics, from our perspective, run afoul of the Constitution because they repeatedly hit folks who are lawfully exercising their First Amendment rights,” Simon said. “It’s not okay for law enforcement to rely on one violation of the law to injure many of us.”
The Oregon Constitution also prohibits local law enforcement agencies from treating arrested or confined people with “unnecessary rigor,” like tightening handcuffs, strip searches in jails, or other “indignities,” like handcuffing a compliant person when they would be willing to walk to a police vehicle without restraints.
“This is a higher standard — a stricter standard, than the excessive force standard,” Simon said. “Local law enforcement, like the Portland Police Bureau, are prohibited from being unnecessarily forceful with us. And that’s really important.”
Federal agents, including ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, have authority to enforce federal immigration laws and are sometimes tasked with protecting federal buildings — even though agents in those departments are not necessarily trained in crowd control.
“They also are limited by the federal constitution,” Simon said. “So, they need to respect the First Amendment rights of people who are gathered outside. They need to comply with the Fourth Amendment to the extent they are justified in using force.”
Federal agents have used pepper balls, pepper spray, smoke grenades and other chemical munitions against protesters on multiple occasions outside the ICE building since protests began there in early June, according to both first-hand observation by Street Roots reporters and social media reports. PPB used pepper spray against protestors on at least one occasion. Aside from that incident, on June 12, PPB says it has not used chemical munitions against protesters at the ICE building, according to a July 8 update from the city.
The most recent policy updates for federal agents on use of force define a less-lethal device as “an instrument of weapon that is designed or intended to be used in a manner that is not likely to cause death or serious bodily injury.” That includes electronic control weapons, impact weapons and certain chemical agents. While the policy bars excessive use of force, including chokeholds and neck restraints, specific directives are scant on the use of less-lethal munitions for crowd control purposes, giving broad authority to commanders to decide if and when to use them.
Members of the public who a federal agency injures do have a right to submit claims through the Federal Tort Claims Act. But a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Egbert v. Boule made it more difficult to bring claims against federal officers — known as “Bivens claims” — narrowing civil actions in excessive use of force claims against federal officers.
“The Supreme Court has definitely made it harder to seek remedies under the federal Constitution against federal officers, but it isn’t impossible,” Simon said.
PPB Inventory
Regardless of which police force fires the weapons, protestors in Portland face significant danger from less-lethal munitions. While federal agents maintain their own stockpile, it is unclear which weapons they may use outside the Portland ICE building — which sits two blocks from the Willamette River and next door to an elementary school.
But PPB’s munitions inventory is available to the public. In a sanctuary city within a sanctuary state, PPB cannot legally assist with immigration enforcement. However, it maintains a presence at protests to enforce city and state law, according to PPB Chief Bob Day. PPB can legally use plastic and hard foam impact rounds, paint rounds, pepper balls and smoke grenades during protests, but is barred from using rubber bullets and has none of those in its inventory, according to PPB munitions reports and Heidi Brown, chief deputy city attorney.
Officers can deploy tear gas, including CS, CN and OC gases, but only with an incident commander’s authorization and after giving crowds two advance warnings.
In response to law enforcement escalations during the Black Lives Matter protests, Portland City Council passed a resolution Dec. 9, 2020, creating new authorization procedures for how PPB purchases military-style equipment and requiring PPB to submit quarterly munitions inventory reports to the mayor.
The first quarter report for 2025 shows PPB had 3,254 less lethal impact munitions with irritants — 96 less than in the fourth quarter 2024. That includes tactical CS or OC gas grenades, both of which are flammable, toxic if swallowed or inhaled, may cause allergy or asthma symptoms, and can cause eye, skin and respiratory irritation, according to the manufacturer.
PPB spokesperson Kevin Allen said reductions in the number of munitions between the fourth quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025 were due to PPB use during a less-lethal munitions training on Feb. 7, 2025. Impact munitions inventory remained the same in the second quarter 2025.
Some less lethal impact munitions are a blend of both OC and CS gases, categorized by the manufacturer as an “exploding bomb,” which present fire and explosion hazards. Some OC impact rounds in PPB’s armory inflict “blunt trauma” and simultaneously mark the target with powder, according to the manufacturer’s website.
The second quarter 2025 report shows PPB has 2,200 launchable and hand-toss tear gas canisters, according to its report. PPB purchased 60 hand-toss munitions in the first quarter of 2025.
Recent changes to PPB directives require an incident commander to authorize the use of tear gas. PPB is also required to consider the proximity to “residential areas, hospitals, schools, and freeways or areas with high density traffic,” according to administrative rules. (The ICE building is adjacent to multiple residential buildings, OHSU facilities, an elementary school, Interstate 5, and busy onramps to multiple freeways.)
PPB also must attempt to minimize exposure to anyone who is not a specific target, and cannot use chemical weapons on the operator of a vehicle “without justification for doing so and unless no reasonable alternative is apparent.”
PPB also maintains a stockpile of 1,805 non-irritant impact rounds — like plastic and hard foam rounds — down 139 rounds from the first quarter 2025 total of 1,944.
Allen said he was “not able to” provide details on the latest report, or how the 139 rounds were used.
“PPB is proud of our transparency work and encourage our community to browse the extensive amount of information on our website both related to crime statistics, public safety, and PPB administration,” Allen said.
The non-irritant impact rounds are highly flammable and contain lead salts, which present long-term health hazards and are toxic to the environment, according to the manufacturer.
PPB may only use impact rounds on an individual person in a crowd if that specific person is engaged in conduct that would otherwise justify the use of force under state law and PPB policy, according to city administrative rules. Officers are not allowed to intentionally target a person’s head, neck, throat, or groin area, except when a person is engaged in conduct that would otherwise justify the use of deadly force.
A total of 162 paint rounds or pepper balls remain in PPB’s armory — which can cause skin irritation and eye damage — and 794 smoke grenades, labeled as an “exploding bomb,” according to the manufacturer. Manufacturer documents note that the smoke grenades are flammable and are “harmful to aquatic life with long lasting effects.”
PPB’s 67 distraction devices — commonly known as “flash bangs” — are flammable and can cause explosions or blast injury if mishandled, according to the manufacturer.
State law bars local law enforcement from using a proxy agency — like state police or federal agents — to engage in crowd control measures a court has deemed illegal for local police, and local police cannot work with another law enforcement agency to engage in misconduct barred by a court order or statute. An officer’s violation of the state law would constitute official misconduct in the second degree under state law — a Class C misdemeanor.
Like PPB directives, state law bars any local or state law enforcement agency from using tear gas until a commanding officer authorizes its use, announces to the crowd its intent to use tear gas, gives “sufficient time for individuals to evacuate the area,” and makes a second announcement immediately before using it.
Once PPB finishes its police duties and the conduct it deemed a threat has been neutralized, administrative rules require PPB to provide emergency medical aid to anyone it injures, including with the use of tear gas. For anyone experiencing respiratory or cardiac issues, PPB is required to call Emergency Management Services for emergency care.
All munitions in PPB’s inventory have a five-year shelf life and expire between 2025 and 2029, according to the second quarter 2025 inventory report. PPB purchased all of the added inventory, according to Allen.
Allen said “a large portion” will expire at the end of 2025.
“While the new inventory received briefly increases numbers for certain munitions, these numbers will be reduced at the end of 2025 when these munitions expire,” Allen said.
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This article appears in July 16, 2025.