UC police ask to beef up stores of weapons and ammo, alarming students
University of California police, who clashed with student protesters on several campuses last term, will ask the UC regents this week to let them buy drones, robots, pepper balls, projectile launchers and sponge bullets to bulk up their supplies of weapons and ammunition.
The regents will vote Thursday on whether to approve requests for "military equipment" from five campuses: UC Berkeley , UCSF, UCLA, UC Santa Cruz and UC Merced.
Such requests are not new. But in the aftermath of last year's tensions, students and some other observers say they are concerned about the militarization of campus law enforcement and what the requests could mean for protests this year.
All law enforcement agencies in the state have had to publicly request approval for new weapons and ammunition since September 2021, when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB481 into law.
In spite of the "military" references in the law and the request to the regents, however, UC officials say their campus police are requesting no equipment that is military grade or designed for military use.
"This equipment provides UC police officers with non-lethal alternatives to standard-issue firearms, enabling them to de-escalate situations and respond without the use of deadly force," said Stett Holbrook, a spokesperson for UC President Michael Drake.
Still, the heightened attention on this year's weapons requests comes after law enforcement clashed with pro-Palestinian student protesters at several campuses and counterprotesters at UCLA. Students have been calling on Israel to end its war in Gaza, which it launched after Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7. Campuses that saw large numbers of arrests this spring were UCLA, UC Irvine, UC San Diego and UC Santa Cruz .
The UC Student Association "strongly opposes these weapons requests and we are troubled to see campuses invest money in weapons, rather than student basic needs," said Aditi Hariharan, a UC Davis senior and president of the UC-wide undergraduate student government.
Citing "issues of police violence on students" last year, Hariharan urged the regents to vote no on the requests and said the student government would rather see the weapons budget spent on helping students "facing extreme housing crises, food insecurity, and other basic needs shortages."
UC spent $79,163 on weapons and ammunition last year, according to the request, which doesn't say how much the equipment would cost this year.
UCLA and UC Berkeley police are asking for more of those materials this year than they did in 2023.
The largest request comes from UCLA, which replaced its police chief after the department's botched handling of a sustained, violent attack by counterprotesters on a pro-Palestinian student encampment in April.
The campus is asking for 3,000 rounds of pepper bullets, 300 rounds of tear gas, 100 rounds of sponge projectiles, eight launchers to fire the ammunition, and three drones. Last year UCLA police asked only for 80 sponge bullets to augment their supply.
"All these tools are meant to provide officers with the ability to de-escalate or overcome self-destructive, dangerous or combative individuals without having to resort to deadly force," according to the requesting document. "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."
UC Berkeley, which asked for no new equipment last year, is now requesting four drones, a hazardous devices robot to replace the one it has had for 20 years, and a "breaching tool" to break through barriers such as barricaded doors.
UCSF , which is under investigation by House Republicans who accused the medical school last month of "pervasive acts of antisemitic harassment and intimidation," is asking for three drones. It made no request last year.
UC Santa Cruz — where police arrested at least 110 pro-Palestinian demonstrators in May and banished them temporarily from campus — is requesting a pair of drones. The campus received permission last year to buy the drones for research purposes but never did so. This year's request doesn't use the word "research."
UC Merced received permission last year to purchase 100 rounds of sponge bullets and five launchers but didn't buy them. The school said that this year it will.
"The University of California just announced a list of military weaponry it wants in order to escalate its warfare on its students," the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, a Los Angeles group that opposes police surveillance, posted Friday on a social media site.
The post was shared more than 3,300 times and received at least 100 mostly supportive comments.
Capt. Sabrina Reich of the UC Berkeley police, where campus officials negotiated a peaceful end to a 200-tent protest encampment in May, disputed the coalition's characterization.
"The equipment requests are intended to modernize security measures, not escalate tensions," Reich said, adding that the goal is to improve public safety.
At UC Berkeley last term, police clashed only minimally with pro-Palestinian protesters . Instead, they tackled an unrelated active shooter at the Clark Kerr campus last month and sent hundreds of officers to surround People's Park and ward off anti-development activists in January.
Nowhere does the requesting document from UC police mention student protesters. It says the equipment is needed because "critical incidents are unpredictable, often fluid, and dynamic in nature."
In May, when at least a dozen pro-Palestinian protesters took over an abandoned building at UC Berkeley in May, dozens of officers arrived and arrested them . They brought sponge bullets and launchers — but didn't fire them, Reich said.
