PORTLAND, Ore. - The union that represents Portland police and a Portland police spokeswoman both said Monday they’re hearing some officers are planning to ask the city to decertify their use of beanbag guns after one of their own was put on leave last week for using his on a 12-year-old girl.

Portland Police Association President Scott Westerman said the officers who are refusing to use the beanbag guns are doing it out of fear police Chief Rosie Sizer or police Commissioner Dan Saltzman won’t stand behind them if they use the guns.

The exact number of officers who are asking to be decertified to use the beanbag guns is not known because the paperwork has not made it to Sizer’s office. But the union said it is hearing it is about 25.

The decision by the officers comes after an altercation Saturday, Nov. 14 on a MAX platform in Northeast Portland.

Officer Christopher Humphreys was assisting another officer who was trying to arrest the adult-sized 12-year-old. Police said the girl punched the officer in the face before he took her down. Humphreys then shot her in the leg with his beanbag gun at close range.

Last Thursday, Nov. 19, Saltzman and Sizer placed Humphreys on paid administrative leave. Westerman said the decision was about politics and Humphreys was being punished in his role in the death of James Chasse Jr. in 2006.

Westerman said the decision by officers to no longer use their beanbag guns did not come from the union.

”This is an individual action by individual officers doing this … because of their concerns about being the next person to be thrown to the wolves,” he said. When asked if he thought that public safety would be harmed if police officers no longer carried the guns Westerman said, “I think public safety is harmed by politicians causing these officers to second-guess they’ll be covered when they use the tools that are provided to them in accordance with their training.”

Sizer declined to comment because, in part, of a lawsuit filed against the city involving Humphreys in Chasse’s death, Portland Police Bureau spokeswoman Mary Wheat said.

Wheat said the chief doesn’t consider the officer’s refusal to use beanbag guns a public safety issue because they’re rarely used.

According to Portland Police Bureau records, in 2006 beanbag guns were fired 281 times out of 3,885 “use of force cases”. By 2008 the use of the guns plummeted to just 32 times of all “use of force cases.”

So far this year the guns have also been used 32 times. Wheat said she isn’t sure why the guns are being used less but the drop coincides with the bureau giving officers Tasers.

A spokesman for Commissioner Saltzman said Saltzman was unaware of the officers’ plans to no longer carry their beanbag guns until a KATU News reporter brought it to his attention.

The spokesman said Saltzman’s office would have to be briefed by the Police Bureau.

There is an Internal Affairs investigation into Officer Humphreys’ actions at the MAX platform, and the police union is planning a rally at City Hall Tuesday morning in support of Humphreys. It said that a rally of this sort hasn’t happened since 1985.