Berkeley’s long‑running fight over police use of chemical agents is back on the agenda, as the City Council considers rolling back its 2020 tear gas ban and loosening pandemic‑era limits on smoke and pepper spray for the Police Department’s Special Response Team. Councilmember Rashi Kesarwani has put forward a resolution that would allow the SRT to use chemical agents in tightly defined, life‑threatening emergencies. The item has been sent to the Police Accountability Board for review ahead of Tuesday’s council meeting and is already drawing heat from oversight members and veteran activists who say Berkeley has the scars to prove why this is a bad idea.
What Kesarwani’s Resolution Would Change
In the draft resolution, Kesarwani argues that tear gas “remains a vital option” for resolving “high risk incidents” and urges the city to preserve a narrowly tailored exception so SRT officers can deploy it when they or members of the public face serious danger. As reported by The Daily Californian, the proposal would keep the ban on tear gas for crowd control, while restoring limited authorization for so‑called critical incidents and lifting temporary COVID‑era restrictions on smoke and OC (oleoresin capsicum) spray. The Daily Californian also notes that Kesarwani’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Oversight Review And Early Pushback
The measure has been referred to the Police Accountability Board for discussion at its Wednesday meeting and appears on the City Council’s consent calendar for Tuesday, according to a draft agenda posted by the Sustainable Berkeley Coalition. PAB chair Josh Cayetano told The Daily Californian that high‑profile episodes like “Bloody Thursday” make him wary of future use of so‑called less‑lethal weapons and that previous deployments have raised serious First Amendment concerns.
Berkeley’s History With Chemical Crowd Control
Berkeley’s 2020 ordinance, passed amid protests following the murder of George Floyd, permanently outlawed tear gas and restricted the use of smoke and pepper spray at demonstrations, a shift documented by Berkeleyside. The city had already seen controversial deployments in December 2014 and again in May 2020, and activists regularly connect those moments to a longer history that stretches back to the 1969 People’s Park showdown, known as “Bloody Thursday,” chronicled in historical accounts such as The Nation.
Legal And Accountability Questions
Critics argue that softening the ban would expand the city’s legal exposure and further muddy efforts to hold individual officers responsible for chemical deployments. Founding members of Berkeley Copwatch and other local activists have flagged worries about bystanders being unintentionally hit and the difficulty of tracing specific canisters back to the officers who fired them. The Berkeley Police Department declined to comment on the resolution, citing a department policy against weighing in on pending legislation, according to The Daily Californian.
Any reversal of the current rules would also trigger process questions and labor issues. Changes to weapon authorizations can require the city to meet and confer with the police union and to adopt a revised use policy with corresponding public reporting requirements, observers note. Policy advocacy groups have emphasized that altering the ban would demand formal council action and detailed policy language to spell out narrow, reviewable circumstances under which any chemical agents could be used. The American Friends Service Committee has laid out how existing city rules and council oversight shape those decisions; AFSC explains the municipal steps required for changes to police equipment and use policies.
What To Expect Next
The PAB discussion on Wednesday is the first formal stop. If the board sends the item back, the council could approve the resolution as part of the consent calendar at Tuesday’s meeting or pull it for a fuller, on‑the‑record debate. Either way, its presence on the consent agenda virtually guarantees public comment and close scrutiny from both civil liberties groups and public‑safety advocates as the council returns from its winter recess.
No matter how the vote goes, the move is poised to reopen a deeply charged local argument about policing, protest rights and the narrow set of tools officials say they need to protect public safety in Berkeley.
