URBANA — Campus police officers are allowed to use pepper spray on "violent or threatening crowds," per University of Illinois policy, but they would never use it on passive protesters, UI Police Chief Barbara O'Connor said Monday, in wake of criticism of pepper spray being used on protesters in California.

In video widely circulated online, police officers at the University of California-Davis last week were shown using pepper spray on protesters who were sitting, some with arms locked, on a campus sidewalk. Police attempted to move them after clearing out a Occupy Wall Street-related camp in the area.

"When you look at the Occupy movement, I think we're struggling as a country on what's the best approach to deal with these situations," O'Connor said.

And lately, she noted, it appeared police forces have been taking more "active" approaches.

Although the UI policy allows the use of pepper spray, known as oleoresin capsicum spray, or OC, "we wouldn't use it on passive protesters and that's pretty clear up to the Supreme Court," she said. "The question is when do they become active. ... And legally, interlocking of arms would fit the definition of an active resistance."

Still, she said she would have a very difficult time ordering or allowing staff to use the spray on students. Having not been on the scene, she said it is difficult to judge what occurred on the Davis campus, but she did call the video "alarming."

Protests and rallies by students, unions and other groups are often held on the Urbana campus, but it has been years since there have been any scuffles with police. The occupation of Swanlund Administration Building by opponents of Chief Illiniwek in 2004 ended after university officials and protesters agreed to further discussions on Chief Illiniwek's future.

In the early 1990s, however, a UI student protest on Cinco de Mayo, in which over 100 students occupied the Henry Administration Building, ended with some protesters arrested and alleging police brutality. According to news reports, police forcibly removed 56 students and four were arrested.

"Universities are very politically vocal places and we want them to be the marketplace of ideas. ... Given that, the way we handle protests at universities is different from the way, for example, Oakland handles them," O'Connor said.

O'Connor said she would visit the scene and a group of campus policymakers would speak frequently and be given updates from officers. Situations are best handled when administrators talk with protesters and ask what they want. If the students, for example, want to be arrested, police would then explain ahead of time what could happen next.

Given the situation in Davis, O'Connor said, chiefs have been reviewing their own policies and systems in place.

According to the UI policy on its response to resistance, "department members may respond to resistance or aggression by use of physical control tactics based upon reasonable belief that the tactics are necessary."

"The use of OC spray is intended to be used primarily against unarmed subjects who officers reasonably believe have indicated physically and/or verbally that they intend to resist arrest or assault an officer or other person.

"OC spray may be used to redirect violent or threatening crowds as reasonable," the policy states.