The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department has acknowledged that “Occupy San Diego” protesters who were arrested in late October had no choice but to relieve themselves while detained in buses and vans.

Police in riot gear arrested protesters at downtown encampments in Civic Center Plaza and Children’s Park on October 28. The 36 men were placed in a Sheriff’s bus and the 14 women were put in Sheriff’s vans.

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Because there were no restroom facilities available for the arrested protesters, some of them had to urinate and defecate while detained in the vehicles.

“For the Sheriff’s Department to provide mutual aid in this kind of mass arrest circumstance is not unusual; this unfortunate result is very unusual and it is currently being reviewed,” the Sheriff’s Department said in a statement sent to San Diego CityBeat.

“The Sheriff has directed that a Critical Incident Review be conducted internally. Also, the Sheriff’s Department and the Police Department will conduct a mutual debrief to examine in detail how the operation was handled. From those reviews we will determine how to improve our practices to assure that this does not happen again.”

The “Occupy San Diego” protesters plan to file a request for a temporary restraining order against the City of San Diego and the San Diego Police Department for violating their First Amendment rights.

Photo credit: Nick Bernal