CHAPEL HILL -- The Chapel Hill Police Department will send a patrol supervisor to political demonstrations after reviewing its handling of a November protest where a woman was arrested.

In a memo, Police Chief Brian Curran said the supervisor -- a sergeant or higher rank -- will run the department's response to the protest as it unfolds. When police have advance notice of a planned demonstration, the department will visit the scene to prepare for it.

The memo responds to a citizen request for a review of a Nov. 30 protest at the Burger King on Elliott Road. Between 10 and 15 people were protesting tomato pickers' wages in Florida, Curran said. A UNC graduate student was arrested.

Police charged the student, Tamara Tal, with failure to clear a public walkway, according to a police report.

Her lawyer, civil rights attorney Al McSurely, filed a complaint with the police department, and Margaret "Peggy" Misch, of the Orange County Bill of Rights Defense Committee, asked the town for a review of the incident.

According to Curran's memo, an officer told the protesters that management did not want them on the restaurant property. The officer said they had to make room on the sidewalk for people to pass and that they could not block traffic in or out of the parking lot.

The officer left on a 911 call, but the restaurant called police back to say the protesters were now inside causing a disturbance, according to the memo. When police returned, the protesters were outside and a spokeswoman for the group said the protest was over.

"Several of the protesters did appear to be getting ready to go," Curran said in the memo. "Some of the others were refusing to leave, preferring to stay on the scene to argue with the officers.

"After approximately 10 minutes, officer (Charles) Shehan, at random, picked out one of the protesters in the crowd who seemed to be refusing to disperse, directed her to leave or risk arrest. She moved from the front of the crowd to the rear of the crowd ... . Seeing that she was not leaving the area as directed, Officer Shehan re-approached her and placed her under arrest for failing to disperse."

Curran said the arrest was justified.

"The operating theory is you can only arrest one (person) at a time," he said.

But in hindsight, Curran added, if the officers had simply left, the protesters probably would have left as well and the arrest could have been avoided.

"Protests of this type can be very challenging to officers responding to them because those participating tend to either ignore the officers completely or, alternatively, provoke and engage in argument," he wrote in the memo.

Tal tells a different story.

In an interview Monday, she said she arrived just as the protest was breaking up. She was standing with others on the sidewalk and says the only reason she didn't leave immediately was because she felt unsafe and was waiting for the group to leave together.

"I wasn't doing anything wrong, and it was a gross violation of my First Amendment rights and my right to free speech," said Tal, a toxicology grad student and member of the campus Students for a Democratic Society chapter.

Protesters were asking that Burger King sign on to a pact Taco Bell and McDonald's had already agreed to, giving tomato pickers an extra penny per pound, Tal said. Similar protests were being held across the country that day.

"I showed up at the tail end of a demonstration, signed up for a listserv and was harassed by cops," she said. "I was dispersing when they arrested me. ... I made it halfway across the street."

McSurely called the arrest "absurd."

He said the local NAACP, in light of Tal's arrest and the arrest of protesters at other recent demonstrations, will ask the town to establish a police review board to handle such complaints.

Town Council member Mark Kleinschmidt has wanted to see a local review board.

He declined to comment on Tal's case because of the complaint, but said he's felt for some time Chapel Hill needs a way to respond to citizen concerns outside the courts.

"It's not in anybody's interests to have issues like these solved through litigation," said Kleinschmidt, a lawyer. "That's what I would hope such a board would be able to provide."

In his memo, Curran said police will continue to allow protesters to demonstrate their First Amendment rights, even if it means overlooking some town ordinances. For example, police can block traffic if there are more protesters than the sidewalk can handle.

In a telephone interview, Curran said peaceful protest is a Chapel Hill tradition.

"I want officers to keep in mind political protest is something the U.S. Supreme Court takes seriously in terms of protecting, and we do too," he said.