Berkeley OKs continued use of pepper spray in crowds

An anarchist holds a smoke bomb after the police retreat during a protest at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center park in Berkeley, Calif., on Sunday, August 27th, 2017. An anarchist holds a smoke bomb after the police retreat during a protest at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center park in Berkeley, Calif., on Sunday, August 27th, 2017. Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close Berkeley OKs continued use of pepper spray in crowds 1 / 8 Back to Gallery

Berkeley police will be able to use pepper spray on violent protesters after the City Council rejected a proposal to ban its use.

The council decided Tuesday night to keep a 3-month-old law that allows police officers to use pepper spray on protesters, rejecting a recommendation from a civilian commission to roll back the law for health reasons.

The 5-3 vote allows police to continue to use the spray in crowd situations when targeting individuals who have become violent, but Police Chief Andrew Greenwood said that officers have not had to do so since the ordinance passed in September. That’s when the city overturned a 20-year-old ban on police use of pepper spray in crowds in response to a series of political protests that turned into violent clashes between extremist groups.

At Tuesday’s meeting, numerous officials emphasized that police use of pepper spray is allowed only when targeting an individual and cannot be used as a crowd dispersal technique.

The city’s Police Review Commission shared concerns that the spray can have “severe and long-lasting” health effects.

“An officer’s best efforts to spray only an individual violent offender ... can be thwarted by wind or a volatile crowd, thus resulting in accidental exposure of bystanders. Therefore, all uses of pepper spray within a crowd should be banned,” the commission said in its recommendation to the council.

Mayor Jesse Arreguin said Tuesday that pepper spray is a better alternative to other measures of control, such as tear gas.

“The alternatives are either using tear gas or a more heavier use of force,” Arreguin said. “This is an intermediate use of force that is an alternative to much more diffuse and harmful ways to deal with people charging at police officers or a nonviolent protester.”

The ordinance was widely criticized by community members, many of whom cited concerns that pepper spray used in a crowd would injure more than the intended target.

Several speakers said that individuals with pre-existing conditions like asthma or heart problems that could be triggered by pepper spray would be unfairly affected, and may be hesitant to attend protests if they know pepper spray could be discharged.

“Police aren’t asking if you have asthma before they pepper spray you,” Kelly Hammargren said during public comment.

Greenwood said that when pepper spray is used, the target is immediately prioritized treatment by first responders to mitigate the adverse effects of the chemical.

Greenwood said that pepper spray has been used only seven times in the past three years and that it was not something the department relied on. Greenwood said that he wanted the department to have the tools necessary to “create a space for free speech” in case more protests come to Berkeley.

“The situation that created our desire for pepper spray, those conditions have not changed,” Greenwood said.

Annie Ma is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ama@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @anniema15