SAN FRANCISCO — College of California police shall be replenishing and growing their stockpile of military-grade weapons and tools — together with drones, bullets and hundreds of pepper ball rounds — as a part of an annual request permitted Wednesday by the governing board of regents.
As UC’s dealing with of protests and campus safety comes beneath scrutiny from the Trump administration, 5 campuses — UCLA, Irvine, Santa Barbara, San Diego and San Francisco — requested for extra weapons, whereas these in Berkeley, Davis, Merced, Riverside and Santa Cruz didn’t search to make new purchases.
The most important request got here from UC San Diego, which stated it wanted 5,000 new 5.56-millimeter caliber rifle rounds to switch ones utilized in trainings. At UC Irvine, police requested for 1,500 pepper-ball projectiles. Though it has a major weapons stock in comparison with different campuses — amongst it 39,500 rifle rounds and ammo — UCLA’s police made comparatively few requests, together with 4 new pepper-ball launchers and 100 sponge foam rounds.
California legislation enforcement companies are required by state legislation to make annual reviews on the acquisition and use of weapons that qualify as navy tools. The definition contains munitions, explosives and long-range acoustic gadgets, that are often utilized by U.S. legislation enforcement and should not unique to the navy. Some tools beneath the definition, reminiscent of drones, should not conventional weapons however used for patrol and particular occasions.
A report from the workplace of UC President James B. Milliken offered Wednesday to the board of regents, which permitted the requests, added that the instruments “should not used indiscriminately however with warning to guard the lives of UC group members/guests and UC officers when bringing an incident to a conclusion with the least quantity of drive.”
The report stated “no UC campus makes use of or receives items from the U.S. Division of Protection and Legislation Enforcement Help Workplace program for surplus navy tools.”
Underneath the state legislation, police departments additionally must disclose use of such weapons within the final yr. In 2024, the report stated weapons had been primarily used throughout coaching and that new orders would assist replenish provides utilized in these workouts.
There have been dozens of non-training exceptions at UCLA:
- On June 10, 2024, police deployed 240 pepper-ball projectiles “throughout an incident involving an aggressive crowd.” It added that not one of the rounds had been “aimed toward people and there have been no reviews of those rounds straight affecting any individual.” A single sponge foam spherical was additionally fired. Police had been responding to a pro-Palestinian encampment and protest.
- A protracted-range acoustic machine was used for crowd administration 71 occasions. The report described the machine as “a transportable speaker used to supply elevated sound and readability over public deal with techniques, bullhorns, or megaphones so officers can successfully talk with crowds and supply emergency instructions to folks in giant areas to allow them to take instant actions reminiscent of sheltering in place or evacuating.”
- A sponge foam spherical was fired “throughout an arrest when a suspect put their hand close to a police officer’s firearm.”
The report additionally detailed non-training makes use of at two extra campuses: UC Davis deployed drones 11 occasions for “patrol and particular occasions,” and UC Santa Cruz additionally used a long-range acoustic machine for crowd administration at the very least as soon as.
California Meeting Invoice 481, which requires the disclosures, was signed into legislation in 2021. However public scrutiny of UC policing has grown since 2024, when pro-Palestinian protests grew throughout the 10-university system and officers clashed with demonstrators at a number of campuses.
UCLA police, the LAPD and California Freeway Patrol had been faulted in inner and exterior reviews, together with one compiled by a congressional schooling committee, for a failure to coordinate and rapidly reply to a violent assault on a UCLA encampment in on April 30 and Might 1, 2024. The companies have additionally confronted criticism and lawsuits by pro-Palestinian protesters after officers shut down a number of demonstrations that yr.
Since then, UCLA has created a brand new prime campus security publish, put in new police management and instituted adjustments to protest guidelines, together with zero tolerance of encampments.
Talking on the regents assembly Wednesday throughout a public remark interval, UCLA affiliate professor Chelsea Shover inspired regents to reject the purchases.
“My concern is that it is going to be used in opposition to college students and school,” stated Shover, who works within the medical and public well being colleges. In an interview, Shover added, “I’ve no confidence military-grade tools will make the campus safer, as final yr’s UCLA campus protests made clear.”
Along with calls for President Trump has made just lately to limit protests and speech freedoms at UCLA — in trade for the discharge of frozen federal analysis funding — “this units a worrying and chilling impact on rights protected by the first Modification,” Shover stated.
Graeme Blair, a UCLA professor of political science who was a part of the 2024 encampment and extra pro-Palestinian protests, stated he believed Wednesday’s presentation “obscures a unprecedented use of drive that injured college students and school” through the June 10, 2024, campus protest that resulted in arrests.
Blair stated the police-fired projectiles ended up “hitting college students and school, leaving them bruised and with burning eyes.” Police reported solely utilizing one spherical foam spherical. Blair stated he witnessed a number of rounds.
“The truth that UCPD fails to explain these harms calls into query whether or not they are often trusted with extra munitions and their deployment,” he stated. “Much less-lethal munitions like sponge rounds, rubber bullets, and pepper balls don’t have any place on a school campus, a lot much less to be deployed in opposition to college students and school exercising their proper to free expression.”
