Petaluma Police reported using military equipment 4 times in the past year

Two tense standoffs, one that ended in violence, were among four instances in the past year in which Petaluma police used their military gear, the department said in a recent report.

The annual report — part of state-mandated requirements regarding police use of military or “specialized” equipment — was released in late June and presented by the Petaluma Police Department to the City Council at its Aug. 5 meeting.

In one incident — a six-hour standoff at a Petaluma apartment complex in October where a man held a woman hostage — police used armored personnel carriers, a mobile command vehicle, a stun grenade “flashbang” and a 40mm launcher firing three rounds. tear gas in the apartment, police said in the department’s annual Military Equipment Use Report.

The report also referenced a March standoff with a gunman at the Best Western on S. McDowell Boulevard that involved the use of armored personnel carriers and a mobile command vehicle. Hours later, the man shot himself in that incident, and police reportedly used an armored vehicle to force entry into the room.

Last August, police used the department’s armored personnel carriers and mobile command vehicle after a sexual assault suspect ran from authorities and hid inside a city building, according to the report. In May this year, police shot a suspect in the leg with a foam baton from a 40mm launcher after they were called to investigate reports of a woman screaming and broken glass.

The report states that between July 2023 and June 2024, Petaluma police spent more than $247,600 on the department’s military equipment — $120,000 on storage, $56,350 on training, $27,400 on maintenance and more than $43,800 on the purchase of seven “air systems without a pilot known as drones’. and a remote-controlled robot called the “unmanned ground vehicle.” Estimated costs for the next fiscal year were approximately $210,000.

The storage facility, located adjacent to the police department, houses armored rescue vehicles, the mobile command vehicle and “other essential non-military city equipment vehicles,” according to a staff report.

The department is not looking to buy new military equipment in the current fiscal year and anticipates replacing only worn or damaged inventory, according to a staff report.

At the meeting, council member Brian Barnacle praised the level of detail on the department’s use of force, but asked that future iterations include data from previous years to show trends.

Council member Mike Healy said he appreciated the “thoroughness” of the report.

“Your actions have demonstrated that the community can trust this department to use these resources appropriately,” Healy said.

Mayor Kevin McDonnell emphasized the importance of sharing such “amazing” narratives.

“It’s not what a normal person sees or understands in their life … And it’s such an important thing to trust the department that they understand how overwhelming and intimidating this can be for the general public,” he said .

Designated use

Most of the military equipment is for the exclusive use of the police department’s Special Weapons and Tactics Team, a branch of the city’s crisis response team, said Lt. Garrett Glaviano of Petaluma police, who heads the city’s professional standards division, presented the article to council members.

“It is important to distinguish that while the Legislature has deemed this equipment ‘military equipment,’ the department’s two armored personnel carriers are the only pieces of equipment that were designed for the military and were obtained from the Department of Defense,” Glaviano said. “The rest of our equipment was designed for and is commonly used by municipal law enforcement agencies.”

Out of the 15 categories of equipment in AB 481, the local police department has equipment in seven of them. In the report, police also listed 19 times when weapons were drawn as a “show of force” but not actually used. These include eight times police showed the 40mm launcher loaded with a foam cartridge and 11 times they showed a “less lethal” 12-gauge shotgun loaded with a beanbag cartridge.

Like last month’s public military equipment display and community meeting, the annual report is required by state law under AB 481, which was passed in 2021 as “an effort to increase transparency, accountability and oversight regarding the acquisition and the use of military equipment”, Glaviano. he said, and is part of a larger shift toward increased police oversight.

AB 481 also requires the Petaluma Police Department to seek annual City Council reapproval for the funding, purchase and use of military equipment by the law enforcement agency through a city ordinance.

Council members passed the item 6-0, with member Janice Cader Thompson absent.

Although the city first adopted its military equipment policy in June 2022, in May of this year the city officially formed its first police oversight committee, the Public Safety Advisory Committee.

Intended as a resource for improving community-police relations, the committee began as a recommendation from an ad hoc community advisory committee formed in March 2021 as part of a nationwide protest against police brutality against people of color.

Another recommendation from the same ad hoc committee was the city’s first independent police audit, released in March.

Those seeking more information about the Petaluma Police Department’s military equipment can visit cityofpetaluma.org/police-department-specialized-equipment, email [email protected] or contact the city’s independent police auditor at policeauditor@cityofpetaluma. org or visit petalumapoliceauditor .org.

You can reach writer Jennifer Sawhney at 707-521-5346 or [email protected]. On X (Twitter) @sawhney_media.