Berkeley Keeps Tear Gas Ban as Police Proposal Falls 4-5
City Council • BerkeleySeptember 29, 2026
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Berkeley's police Special Response Team will remain barred from using tear gas, smoke and pepper spray, including during hostage and armed-barricade standoffs. At a Sept. 29 special meeting, the City Council voted 4-5 against a resolution that supporters said the Police Accountability Board and the police department had negotiated. Roughly 30 public commenters spoke, and all but one urged the council to keep the ban.
- Tear gas ban survives 4-5. The council rejected narrow carve-outs for hostage, barricade and warrant incidents.
- The COVID-era smoke and OC spray moratorium stays in place.
- About 30 public commenters, including Quakers, the Berkeley Tenants Union and a Portland city councilor, nearly all opposed.
- The Berkeley Police Association offered the lone public case for restoring the tool.
- The council voted 9-0 to take no action on the Peace and Justice Commission's call for a health study.
The basics: A June 9, 2020, council direction banned police tear gas. It also imposed a temporary COVID-19 moratorium on smoke and oleoresin capsicum (OC), commonly called pepper spray. The Special Response Team (SRT) is the Berkeley Police Department's tactical unit.
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