nothin Cops Ready Crowd-Control Squad | New Haven Independent

Cops Ready Crowd-Control Squad

Christopher Peak Photo

Sgt. Rose Dell: Cops need bigger pepper spray, better batons.

Safariland Group

The MK-46 Stream OC Aeorosol, which can spray 26 second-long bursts.

A new crowd-control unit being formed within the New Haven Police Department will equip cops with bigger pepper-spray bottles and longer batons, under general orders that the Police Commission approved on Wednesday night.

The new 100-member unit is scheduled to get specialized training in crowd management at a five-day course early next month. The goal is to prepare the department in case an event like the violent clashes in Charlottesville, Seattle and Berkeley, between white supremacists and anti-fascists, happens in the Elm City.

Godforbid something like a Charlottesville were to happen, that’s where they could be utilized,” Chief Anthony Campbell said. This crowd-control unit is for, we’re talking extremes.”

Campbell said he decided to form the unit shortly after becoming interim chief. When he started, he asked all of his commanders to conduct an inventory,” reviewing their operations for any gaps. Lt. Nicholas Marcucio, who oversees emergency services, said the department was underprepared to handle a massive crowd. Two assistant chiefs, Luis Casanova and Otoniel Reyes, concurred, and the latter came up with a list of what the department needed, Campbell said. Campbell and Reyes both made the ask for funds from City Hall.

EINO SIERPE PHOTO

Cops arrest unarmed protester Nate Blair after throwing him to the ground at anti-Trump rally.

Discussions about new training and equipment also followed controversial arrests by police at demonstrations that caught them by surprise: a Feb. 4 anti-Trump rally and a July 8 clash between a right-wing group called the Proud Boys and counterdemonstrators.

We did not have any equipment: shields, gas masks, batons, anything to be able to deal with a large event,” Campbell said. Yale [Police Department] has crowd-control equipment and training; we could use mutual aid. But we don’t want to be in a position as a major police department where we’re underprepared. You don’t want to respond afterwards.”

46 Ounces, 26 Sprays

Bonowi

The expandable baton will be available in a 20-inch version for detectives and 26-inch for patrol officers.

Under two revised general orders that commissioners unanimously approved on Wednesday night’s meeting at police headquarters, crowd-control cops will get bigger pepper-spray canisters and a new brand of expandable batons.

All beat cops currently carry a 1.5‑ounce bottle of oleoresin capsicum (OC), or pepper, spray, which can shoot out anywhere from six to eight short bursts of the fiery liquid.

Every officer is trained in its deployment. You can’t graduate [from the academy] without” demonstrating proficiency, Campbell noted

The crowd-control unit, after receiving further training, will have access to much larger canisters of the OC spray, including a 12-ounce bottle that can spray 14 times or a 46-ounce bottle (about the size of a fire extinguisher) that can spray 26 times.

The advantage of the larger canisters is that there’s more OC if it’s needed, and also the MK‑9 and MK-46 have a larger stream distance,” explained Sgt. Rose Dell of the internal affairs unit, who prepared the new policies. These are stream OCs; they are not foggers or anything like that.”

As before, police can deploy pepper spray, considered a less-lethal use of force option,” only when an officer reasonably believes it is necessary to control an individual who is a threat to the officers or others, or as a means to overcome active resistance.”

That’s a higher standard than cops need to pull out their batons, another less-lethal” weapon. Police may use batons when encountering alleged passive resistance.” The batons are not to be used indiscriminately or punitively” and never while a person is already in custody, the general order states.

Under the revised general order, the department is switching brands from American-made Monadnock batons to Bonowi, a German product. The deployment will be limited at first just to the crowd-control unit, but eventually the entire force will get a new baton, Dell said.

The advantage is that it’s longer by four inches. However, when the baton is collapsed it’s the same size in the holster. It has a better weight distribution, and it’s also thicker throughout the entire length. We have had some problems now with bending,” Dell said. You’re able to extend [the Bonowi] while it’s in the holster. Currently, [with Monadnock], you have to take it out and whip it, whereas this one, while you pull it out, it expands. These are much smoother. They’re easier to collapse.”

Police Commissioners Evelise Ribero, Gregory Smith and Kevin Diaz.

Commissioner Steven Garcia asked if the department will track baton usage. Dell said that officers must make a report for its deployment, just as with any other use of force. Everything above compliant handcuffing” must be documented, she said.

Campbell added that’s true, even if an officer just unholsters it and doesn’t use it.

You pull out your Taser gun: use of force. Pull out your gun: use of force. Pull out your baton: use of force,” he said.

Community Wariness

Christopher Peak Photo

Police critics question chief at Dixwell forum earlier this month.

Equipping police officers for crowd control makes some locals wary. Just two weeks ago, at a community policing forum at Stetson Library, several citizens grilled Campbell about the state police’s use of canines at an anti-Trump protest — a tactic the chief said he would’ve avoided. That night, the chief also noted that department will not be accepting surplus armored vehicles or weaponry from the military.

Campbell said that New Haveners need not worry, since they likely won’t be seeing cops in riot gear anytime soon.

We try to handle most of our large events with what we call our soft uniform’” — the standard-issue button-downs and slacks, he said Thursday. It is not to militarize the department and not to be intimidating. You only use it when you need it.”

A general order outlining the department’s procedures on crowd control is forthcoming, Campbell said.

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