A Quaker Activist Group Forced the City of Orange to Reveal Police Department's Inventory

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VoiceOfOC

The American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization, filed a lawsuit against the Orange Police Department after they refused to fulfill a public records request on the purchase and deployment of militarized equipment in October 2021.

This refusal came just after California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 481, a new state law that requires law enforcement agencies to adopt a written military equipment policy that lists all city-owned military-grade equipment and get public approval from their governing city councils.

“Militarized police forces bring dangerous weaponry into communities – especially Black and Brown communities – with devastating results,” Lindsay-Poland {co-director of the committee’s California Healing Justice program} wrote in the statement. “We hope that this lawsuit, and our efforts to increase transparency and accountability for law enforcement agencies across the state, will help mitigate the harm and violence caused by militarized policing.”

Orange’s military equipment policy shows that the city has five drones, an armored vehicle, 77 AR-15 style rifles, 33 “less lethal” impact projectile launchers, as well as flashbang grenades and tear gas. The City Council will consider military equipment in a second reading on June 14.