PPB and mayor's office rush emergency purchase of crowd control munitions, while PPB's 2020 protest settlements reach $3.5 million

The city of Portland recently rubber-stamped a Portland Police Bureau, or PPB, emergency request to spend part of a $1.1 million budget to pad its crowd control equipment inventory, including shields, less-lethal munitions and training.

Emails obtained by Street Roots show PPB’s May 29 presentation to City Council included incorrect information, while Mayor Ted Wheeler pushed the ordinance through an emergency process, reducing time for public comment.

PPB Commander Franz Schoening addressed Portland City Council on May 29, outlining PPB’s need for stocking up its crowd control munitions — and fast. Emails show Schoening gathered information from PPB personnel about expiration dates for the bureau’s existing less-lethal munitions stockpile after Street Roots questioned Wheeler and the bureau about the emergency ordinance. Schoening’s presentation included language implying the munitions expire sooner than they actually do, bolstering the perceived need for speed.

Specifically, Schoening told city commissioners the bureau’s May stock of nearly 10,000 less-lethal munitions expires January 2025. However, publicly available inventory lists — and, privately, the bureau’s own personnel — indicate munitions would expire in 2025 and 2026.

Wheeler introduced the emergency ordinance at the last moment, going public May 24 — the Friday before the three-day Memorial Day weekend. If Wheeler added the ordinance to the May 22 Council agenda by May 9, City Council could have fully passed the ordinance via the regular process by May 29, but it would not take effect for 30 days after its passage.

When asked why January was explicitly added to the slide deck, Mike Benner, PPB public information officer, said PPB reached out to the munitions manufacturers for more detailed expiration information prior to the presentation.

“Their response was, in essence, that the munition expires in the 5th year,” Benner told Street Roots on June 29. “So regardless of when in 2020 we purchased the munition, they expire in 2025. Without a specific month to assign to a specific munition, January is the effective expiration for all of the munitions purchased in 2020.”

Wheeler and PPB have not explained why a 30-day delay allowing for a normal process would be a problem even if the bureau considers its existing reserve of less-lethal munitions expired as of January 2025.

The ordinance authorized PPB to spend $28,500 on shields and nearly $28,000 on less lethal munitions, including 350 tear gas canisters, 50 smoke grenades, 350 impact rounds, 300 pepper balls and 100 flash bangs.

The ordinance said the purchase was necessary to support “safety during public order events, which have become more frequent in recent weeks” — referencing student protests demanding an end to the Israeli government’s military assault on Palestine, killing tens of thousands of civilians despite its claims it only targets Hamas. City Council unanimously approved the PPB purchase May 29.

Public records obtained by Street Roots show despite a long back-and-forth between Sgt. Kevin Allen, PPB public information officer, and Sgt. Andrew Kofoed, a January expiration was never specifically mentioned.

“The majority of RRTs current munitions expire in 2025,” Kofoed wrote to Allen on May 23.

Kofoed is one of eight sergeants on the newly formed public order team, according to public records obtained by local police watchdog Marc Poris and provided to Street Roots. The full team includes an additional 42 officers, according to the roster.

Still, Schoening’s City Council presentation explicitly said all of PPB’s inventory is set to expire January 2025 — including tear gas, obscurants, kinetic impact projectiles and flash sound diversionary devices.

“We ordered a whole lot of munitions in 2020, not sure when we'd actually be able to get them,” Schoening told City Council. “But we wanted to make sure we had them if we needed them. So, you can see based on the current inventory, we've got a lot of backlogged crowd control munitions — those all have a five-year expiration date, so all the munitions we purchased in 2020 are going to be expiring in January of 2025.”

Records show PPB made a few January 2020 munitions purchases, but the majority of its purchases came later in 2020. It ordered 80 rubber ball grenades, 20 holsters and 50 projectile rounds, totaling $4,841 on Jan. 2, 2020. PPB made two purchases Jan. 22, 2020, spending $1,230 on Botach launchers, and $3,893.00 on Botach rubber bullets and holsters in separate transactions.

Black Lives Matter protests broke out May 25, 2020, in response to Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s murder of George Floyd, and a contentious presidential election was slated for that November.

PPB went on a spending spree immediately following the national uprising, spending over $117,500 on impact munitions, chemical weapons and equipment in a six-week span from May 30 to July 14, 2020, The Oregonian reported Sept. 6, 2020.

In direct response to those protests and PPB’s unprecedented use of less-lethal munitions and chemical weapons, City Council passed a resolution Dec. 9, 2020, creating new authorization procedures for how PPB purchases military-style equipment, including shields, and required PPB to submit quarterly munitions inventory reports to the mayor.

The second quarter 2024 report, released July 1, shows PPB has 8,426 chemical irritants, impact weapons and riot control agents on hand. That includes 3,662 mace rounds and other impact munitions with chemical irritants; 33 stun grenades, commonly referred to as flash bangs; and 1,892 launchable and hand-thrown tear gas canisters. The report shows PPB also has 2,822 non-irritant impact rounds, like plastic and hard foam rounds; 168 paint rounds; and 749 smoke grenades. All of the munitions in its inventory have a five-year shelf life and expire between 2022 and 2026, according to the inventory report.

“The purpose of these tools is to be deployed to prevent violence, injury or property damage and to avoid a greater application of force in accordance with Bureau of Police Directives 635.10 and 1010.00,” according to the report.

Schoening told City Council PPB’s inventory at that time — 2,161 tear gas canisters, 770 smoke obscurants, 2,998 rubber bullets, 3,662 pepper balls and 33 flash bangs — were all set to expire in January 2025, contradicting the language of the reports.

“I do not have any more details than is listed (in the quarterly inventory reports),” Allen told Street Roots when asked about the discrepancy May 29, after the City Council meeting.

Allen said the expiration date is simply a date at which the items are no longer covered under warranty by the manufacturer, and the expired munitions are intended to be used in training.

“For us, the biggest concern about using expired munitions is the possibility that one may be a dud and not deploy when it is needed,” Allen said. “In the midst of a riot, that’s a real public safety concern. That’s why we want to use them in training. We want to have fresh, in-warranty product in case it’s needed.”

What is at stake

As the city ordinance made clear, the purchase of shields was based on recommendations from the Independent Monitor, LLC, which the city retained to assess PPB’s 2020 crowd control response. The U.S. Department of Justice sued the city of Portland in 2012 for engaging in a pattern of unconstitutional practices, particularly against people suffering a mental health crisis. The city operates under a settlement agreement requiring PPB to revise its use of force standards and reporting, and meet a list of other requirements for two years to be considered in compliance.

Allen said the May munitions purchase was not a PPB initiative but that PPB was following the recommendations of an outside assessment and list of recommendations designed to improve PPB’s practices, in line with the National Tactical Officers Association, or NTOA.

“We are following national best practices in this area as defined by the NTOA,” Allen said.

The NTOA published its Public Order Response and Operations Standards in June 2023, and the booklet lists Schoening as a member of the NTOA Standard Review Committee. The NTOA has no enforcement authority, and any agency using the standards as a benchmark does so voluntarily, according to the document. Schoening spoke about the NTOA standard during his testimony, but failed to mention his direct involvement with the creation of those standards.

A March 2023 Street Roots analysis revealed the city paid over $2.8 million to resolve 35 bodily injury claims and lawsuits stemming from policing during 2020 protests. Payments include settlements and offers of judgment — payments resolving claims that aren’t technically settlements — in addition to legal fees incurred by the city itself.

Litigation is ongoing, and the city continues to pay settlements for a host of infractions by PPB officers during the protests. The city paid at least $817,500 in protest-related settlements since the March 2023 Street Roots analysis.

2023:

- $50,000 on May 17 for a June 6, 2020 encounter

- $26,000 on May 31 for an Aug. 23, 2020 encounter

- $95,000 on July 26 for an Aug. 15, 2020 encounter

- $25,000 Sept. 6 for a July 4, 2020 encounter

- $46,000 on Oct. 18 for an Aug. 24, 2020 encounter

- $300,000 Nov. 1 for a July 18, 2020 encounter

2024:

- $81,000 Jan. 24 for an August 2020 encounter

- $158,000 Jan. 10 for a July 26, 2020 encounter

- $25,000 Feb. 28 for a Sept. 26, 2020 encounter

- $11,500 July 10 for a June 30, 2020 encounter

What is your emergency?

Wheeler’s usage of the emergency ordinance carries implications for the process as well. With the exception of emergency ordinances, city code requires all ordinances to have two public readings and at least five days between the introduction and final passage of the bill. Ordinances also cannot be amended within five days of final passage.

However, emergency ordinances can help officials avoid a lengthy process and public scrutiny. They require just one reading and can be amended until the final vote. They also require unanimous approval — at least four commissioners must be present — but can go into effect immediately after the vote.

New records show Schoening sent emails to PPB’s procurement team as early as May 17 — a week prior to the ordinance being added to the agenda — asking them to prepare a contract with Rampart, a police and military equipment provider, for public order shields. Chief Bob Day then sent a memo the same day requesting to purchase 50 Defilade round shields and 50 Defilade interlocking shields from Rampart.

“I wanted to give you the necessary information to start the process as soon as possible and make sure we’re ready at the earliest possible date to place the order,” Schoening wrote.

While Schoening knew the emergency ordinance was imminent, the public was left in the dark until May 24, the Friday before Memorial Day weekend. On a slightly earlier timeline, a regular ordinance could be introduced by May 9 with two readings to follow starting May 22, in line with city code, or place it on the same May 29 agenda with a slight delay. Instead, Wheeler waited in favor of an emergency ordinance, effectively evading public scrutiny. The city clerk’s office confirmed to Street Roots the ordinance was not filed prior to being placed on the May 29 agenda.

Wheeler’s office said the emergency ordinance avoided a five-week delay as required under a regular ordinance.

“The need to place the purchase order as soon as possible was related to supply chain concerns and increased national demand for these items,” Cody Bowman, Wheeler’s communications director, said.

In his testimony, Schoening said PPB faced supply chain issues amidst civil unrest in 2020, yet made no mention of any ongoing supply chain issue.

In an effort to inform the public prior to the City Council session, Street Roots asked Wheeler’s office May 24 what type of shields and munitions PPB intended to purchase, what and how much of its inventory was expiring and how many shields and other munitions PPB was looking to purchase. Wheeler’s office did not respond prior to publication, and new records show Stephanie Howard, Wheeler’s director of community safety, evaded Street Roots’ questions but instead forwarded them to Schoening to use the day of the City Council vote.

“We are not responding but I wanted to forward you the questions so that you can include information in your presentation as you see fit,” Howard said.

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