UC police get OK for more military-grade equipment after last year’s protests

This article first appeared in EdSource.

University of California police departments are replenishing their inventories of military-grade equipment, including drones, ammunition and pepper ball rounds.

UC’s Board of Regents on Wednesday approved the requests from police departments at the system’s Irvine, San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and San Francisco campuses. Such requests are required to be made public under Assembly Bill 481, a state law passed in 2021. Some faculty members and students have expressed concern about the regents approving weapons requests, fearing they could be used against peaceful protesters.

Wednesday’s request comes as college campus police nationwide face scrutiny on how they will handle future student protests in the wake of controversy over pro-Palestinian encampments last year. Those protests and allegations of antisemitism are central to the Trump administration’s efforts to cut research funding at UCLA and other campuses.

A report outlining the requests said the weapons and ammunition “are meant to provide officers with the ability to de-escalate or overcome self-destructive, dangerous or combative individuals” without having to use deadly force. “These tools are not used indiscriminately but with caution to protect the lives of UC community members/visitors and UC officers when bringing an incident to a conclusion with the least amount of force,” the report adds.

UC San Diego requested two new drones “to assist with patrol operations and special event safety,” according to the report, as well as 5,000 rounds of 5.56 patrol rifle ammunition that the campus said it needed to replenish because rounds were used in training.

The UC Irvine department asked for five new pepper ball launchers and 1,500 pepper ball projectiles. UCLA requested 1,000 new sponge foam rounds, four pepper ball launchers and five additional shot launchers that use less lethal ammunition. 

The requests faced some criticism during Wednesday’s public comment period. Chelsea Shover, an associate professor in UCLA’s School of Medicine, said she was concerned that the weapons would be “used against students and faculty.”

Among the costs of the new equipment are $3,300 for the rounds at UC San Diego and $1,500 each for the pepper ball launchers requested by UC Irvine.

The equipment used by campus police departments is not equipment that is exclusively used by military agencies, noted the report detailing the requests. 

While AB 481 uses the term “military equipment,” the definition in statute encompasses equipment that is not exclusively used by the military,” the report states. In addition, no UC police department “uses or receives goods from the U.S. Department of Defense and Law Enforcement Support Office program for surplus military equipment,” the report added.

EdSource is California’s largest independent newsroom focused on Education.