A breakdown of Santa Ana Police Department\u2019s actions during June 2025 protests sparked an intense discussion at the Santa Ana city council meeting last Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During the anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement demonstrations on June 9, 10, 11 and 14 in 2025, Santa Ana PD deployed 215 40mm less lethal munitions, 59 12-gauge, or \u201cbean bag\u201d munitions, and 35 CS chemical agent munitions, more commonly known as tear gas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Accounting for staffing enhancements, Santa Ana PD spent nearly $400,000 over the course of the four days.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the same time, there were 23 misdemeanor arrests and four felony arrests. There were 15 recorded injuries, pertaining to five arrestees, three Santa Ana PD officers and seven officers from assisting agencies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Assembly Bill 481 states that a local law enforcement agency must obtain approval from their local governing body to use militarized equipment. When asked to clarify by Councilmember\u00a0 Johnathan Ryan Hernandez, Santa Ana Chief of Police Robert Rodriguez confirmed they were not in compliance with AS 481 at the time of the protests.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rodriguez addressed the limited information available in the review, explaining that they could not go into full detail on every aspect of Santa Ana PD\u2019s actions due to pending civil litigation and active internal affairs investigations. Once both cases are settled, more information and body camera footage will be released in accordance with California law.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Councilmembers Benjamin Vazquez, Thai Viet Phan, Jessie Lopez and Hernandez all voiced concerns about Santa Ana PD\u2019s response being disproportionate to the protests’ rowdiness.<\/p>\n
Hernandez, Lopez and Vasquez were present June 9. Hernandez shared that he was shot with less lethal munitions and affected by the tear gas deployed into the crowd.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is in my opinion that this day set it off, our actions set off the next three days,\u201d Vazquez said, referring to June 9. \u201cWhen you have peaceful protesters and one person who is not following direction, and the use of the tear gas and calling other departments in, kind of set the table for what was going to happen on this day.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
According to City Attorney Sonia Carvalho, she received multiple phone calls from somebody working in the Department of Justice requesting that Santa Ana PD seek law enforcement support.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They soon followed up with a second phone call insinuating federal presence if Santa Ana PD could not adequately monitor the protests.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t in a threatening manner, but it was basically \u2018If your department cannot provide the security that we need, then we’re gonna bring in federal resources,\u2019 and we had a discussion about what that might look like in terms of safety for our community,\u201d Carvalho said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Santa Ana PD received mutual aid from 14 police departments across Orange County during the four days, as well as Orange County Sheriff’s Department and California Highway Patrol.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The mutual aid system falls under the California Emergencies Act, where agencies in need of assistance can contact neighboring law enforcement agencies for additional support in personnel or equipment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The protests moved through streets near a federal building and city hall. The initial call for Santa Ana PD was made to assist in escorting the federal employees inside the building outside while the protest was active.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lopez questioned the motivations behind this initial response, which led to the department\u2019s behaviors in the June protests.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhose public safety are you centering if you’re coming towards the crowd? And you’re creating a line to protect the other agents?\u201d Lopez said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rodriguez responded that requests for mutual aid from federal agents are under government code, bound to be responded to by a federal agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mayor Valerie Amezcua asked Rodriguez which federal agency called for escorts and assistants, clarifying if it was the Department of Homeland Security or ICE. Rodriguez stated that to his knowledge, it was employees of the federal building in Santa Ana, nearing the end of the work day around 5:30 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we don’t respond, they will send another agency to take over our city. Not just another federal agency but other local agencies such as Orange County Sheriff’s Department, so we are obligated to respond,\u201d Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A breakdown of Santa Ana Police Department\u2019s actions during June 2025 protests sparked an intense discussion at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,1610,2871,236,2058,123459],"class_list":{"0":"post-288541","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-headlines","10":"tag-anaheim-news","11":"tag-city-council","12":"tag-ice","13":"tag-police","14":"tag-protest","15":"tag-sana-ana"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}