City cancels plan to buy tear gas equipment
A series of public bids issued by the City of Milwaukee to purchase tools to deploy chemical irritants to control crowds have been canceled after several Common Council members raised objections Wednesday, citing the Milwaukee Police Department’s controversial use of tear gas and rubber bullets during protests of police brutality recently.
But MPD is now asking City Hall to reconsider and go forward with the process of purchasing the gas mask equipment, tactical gas delivery systems and aerosol projectors for irritants, saying the equipment is needed for the 2020 Democratic National Convention.
The supplies would be used to protect the public from armed suspects, hostage situations and active shooters, MPD said in a statement.
The department said it requested the equipment in February and March, long before protests erupted in Milwaukee.
Several public officials, including Mayor Tom Barrett, have publicly opposed MPD’s recent use of tear gas and rubber bullets during protests.
During a meeting with the city’s Finance and Personnel Committee on Wednesday, Ald. Nik Kovac raised concerns about the bids to the city’s purchasing director, Rhonda Kelsey, because of the Police Department’s “obvious misuse” of tear gas on protesters recently. Several other council members agreed.
In an interview hours later, Kelsey said the bids have been canceled. She repeated that they were long ago budgeted for the 2020 convention of the Democratic National Committee, originally scheduled to be hosted in Milwaukee in mid-July.
The convention has been moved to the week of Aug. 17, but Democrats say it is still planned as an in-person event and not as a fully virtual convention. Kelsey said the city sent out the bids to meet preparation benchmarks.
“There has not been a final call that it will be virtual,” Kelsey said of the convention. “So again, just moving full speed ahead in preparation for the convention. All this precedes the protests and whatnot and is clearly not related to what’s happening now, in no way.”
The supplies would have been purchased with federal grant money rather than taxpayer dollars, Kelsey said. At least two of the items in question were expected to cost less than $50,000, she said.
Additionally, a “remote firing device kit” for police to use during the convention also opened for bidding in April and was scheduled to close Wednesday. Kelsey said the city is putting that item on hold to determine if there are long-term uses for it. The city has not made a purchase or awarded a contract, she said.
Milwaukee police did not return a request for information about how a “remote firing device kit” would be used.
MPD said in a statement that the decision to cancel the bids was made without any input from law enforcement, including the Secret Service, and that “it is a standard request for most, if not all, law enforcement agencies called upon to provide security at a national security special event.”
Kovac said after the meeting that he does not think chemical irritants should ever be used against American citizens, even in the hypothetical case of some kind of disturbance during a major event such as the DNC.
“Whatever weapons you give someone, they end up using, is a general rule of thumb,” Kovac said. “If we’re really going to train police to be deescalators, to humanize, to respect the First Amendment, we probably shouldn’t give them the tools where they can very easily not do that.”
During the committee meeting, Alds. Milele Coggs and Michael Murphy also spoke in support of Kovac’s concerns relating to bids.
They pointed out the only reason they were made aware of the bids was because concerned residents notified them. The bids were not subject to approval from the committee because they were competitive bids, Kelsey said.
Wednesday evening, Coggs announced she will introduce legislation that would require police to disclose its current inventory of military-grade equipment and notify the council before it purchases any such equipment.