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BERKELEY, Calif. (KTVU) - The Berkeley police department is set to change how it handles public protests after what some called a controversial response to a ‘Black Lives Matter’ protest back in December of 2014.
The city council unanimously accepted the police commission’s report Tuesday night,
paving the way for the department to begin the process of adopting the commission’s recommendations.
Those recommendations include improved methods of crowd control and mutual aid, the use of less than lethal weapons, and not using helicopters to determine crowd movement.
After the report was accepted, the Berkeley Police Chief expressed his disagreement on some of the recommendations especially the helicopter idea.
On the other side, advocates of police accountability called the recommendations simple common sense ideas that don’t go far enough to holding officers accountable.
The protest in question was back on December 6th of 2014 -- as people demonstrated against police killings of unarmed black men nationwide.
As the situation turned chaotic that night, officers dispersed tear gas.
The report called the Berkeley police response that night, "deeply troubling."
The city council tasked the city manager to work with the Police department to implement agreed upon recommendations and keep talking about ones that they disagree on.