Police Panel to Re-Examine Wider Use of Pepper Spray : LAPD: Action is prompted by word that U.S. officials are investigating possible dangers. L.A. commission last month gave officers greater latitude in use of the gas.

Police Commission President Gary Greenebaum, citing reports about the possible dangers of pepper spray, said Tuesday that he will ask the commission to re-examine the issue next week.

The appropriate use of pepper spray--a cayenne pepper-based gas that advocates say is an effective way to immobilize suspects without injuring them--is the only issue so far divide the recently appointed Police Commission. A three-member majority voted last month to expand the authorized use of the spray by LAPD officers. Two panel members, Greenebaum and Commission Vice President Deirdre Hill, opposed the change.

At that meeting, Greenebaum asked the Police Department to produce monthly reports on the use of the spray, but Tuesday he said he wants to reconsider the issue in light of new information that the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating possible dangers associated with the spray.

“My feeling is that if there are problems with it, then we ought to be looking at them,” Greenebaum said. “I think it’s worth a few minutes of our time to consider whether this is the way we ought to go.”

The expanded use of pepper spray has the strong support of many rank-and-file officers, some of whom complain that the prosecution of the officers involved in the Rodney G. King beating has made it difficult to know when they can appropriately use their batons to subdue suspects. Pepper spray, many officers say, gives police an additional tool when confronting suspects who resist arrest.

The gas has its critics, most notably the American Civil Liberties Union, which recently released a study of pepper spray in which it cautioned the LAPD against expanding its use.

On Monday, the ACLU Foundation of Southern California wrote to the Police Commission, urging it to “immediately reopen its review of pepper spray policy for the LAPD.”

The ACLU also asked that the commission issue immediate instructions to all police officers that pepper spray should be used only when the lives of officers, bystanders or suspects are in danger.

Allan Parachini, director of public affairs for the Southern California ACLU, said that organization has been contacted by representatives of the National Institute of Justice, a research division of the Justice Department, which is studying the effects of pepper spray, particularly the deaths of 13 suspects who were gassed with the product.

Parachini said eight suspects in California have died after police sprayed them.