An Aurora city council committee on Thursday decided a proposal to ban police officers’ use of tear gas and pepper spray needed more work before the full council considers it.

Denverite reported that some council members worried about restricting police officers’ crowd-control methods, and others suggested passing a resolution directing the chief of police to enact policy changes.

On Tuesday, Mayor Mike Coffman tweeted his opposition to the legislation, believing that less-than-lethal weapons would be preferable for dispersing crowds than using physical tools. If the sponsors were “concerned that our new police chief, Vanessa Wilson, lacks the judgment to be trusted to know when and when not to deploy these nonlethal measures, they should not have voted for her confirmation,” he wrote.

“I would not be running this ordinance if the alternative was we would be using lethal force on anyone,” countered Councilmember Juan Marcano on Facebook. Marcano was one of the council members who proposed the chemical weapons ban.

He elaborated that he lives in an apartment complex where Aurora police officers once had a standoff with a nearby suspect. He said officers used tear gas, which seeped into adjacent units.

“You’re impacting folks who have nothing to do with this now and subjecting them to exposure to this substance,” he said.