PORTLAND, Ore. — The Portland City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to adopt a resolution that requires the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) to keep an inventory of its crowd control munitions.
The resolution also requires PPB to obtain the city council's authorization before purchasing "military-style equipment," the city said in a press release.
Commissioner Chloe Eudaly introduced the resolution, which was co-sponsored by Mayor Ted Wheeler and Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty and developed with community partners.
Historically, the cost and scope of the PPB’s munitions arsenal were not itemized in the bureau’s larger external material and services line item, the release said.
PPB has been criticized for its use of munitions on protesters in Portland in the months that followed George Floyd's death in May.
“In 1925, the Geneva Protocol banned the military use of tear gas", said Commissioner Eudaly. "As a community, we need to ask ourselves — why have we allowed public servants to use a weapon, our military cannot use in war, against our own community members?”
She added that the militarization of local law enforcement is "harmful to every member of society, and it needs to end."
"Council action alone cannot address the full scope of munitions use, but what we can do today is provide additional clarity — for the public and for the council —into what munitions the bureau has, how they use them, how much they spend and how their arsenal affects demonstrators," she said.
PPB will begin submitting written reports on its munitions inventory on Jan. 27, 2021.
