Tentative pact would ban chokeholds, neck restraints by Minneapolis police
MINNEAPOLIS — The Minneapolis Police Department will ban officers from using chokeholds and neck restraints and strengthen the requirements for officers to intervene if a colleague is using excessive force, under a new deal negotiated between the city and the state.
The tentative agreement — which still requires a judge’s approval — also seeks to give the public more access to officers’ disciplinary decisions and to limit the number of supervisors who can authorize the use of tear gas, rubber bullets and other similar tactics to disperse demonstrators.
The deal came 11 days after 46-year-old George Floyd died after being pinned on the pavement by Minneapolis police, an act captured in a video that went viral and prompted protests against racism and police brutality around the world.
The council’s decision follows the Minnesota Department of Human Rights announcement Tuesday that it was filing a civil rights charge against the Minneapolis police and investigating whether it had engaged in racial discrimination over the past 10 years.
“This is just a start,” state Human Rights Commissioner Rebecca Lucero said during a public meeting Friday. “There is a lot more work to do here, and that work must and will be done with deep community engagement.”
City leaders around the nation have come under intense pressure to make radical changes to policing in the wake of Floyd’s death. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said he would slash a planned budget increase for his department. In Minneapolis, a “Defund MPD” rally is planned for Saturday, and some council members are vowing to “dismantle” the department.
The new agreement instructs the department to update its policies and procedures “to prohibit the use of all neck restraints or chokeholds for any reason.”
A policy posted on the city’s website shows that officers are allowed to use neck restraints that keep people conscious if the person is “actively resisting.” They are authorized to use a neck restraint that renders someone unconscious if they are “exhibiting active aggression,” “for life saving purposes,” or if the person is “exhibiting active resistance” and “lesser attempts at control have been or would likely be ineffective.”
A Minneapolis Star Tribune review of Minneapolis police data found that the use of neck restraints has declined, compared to other types of force that officers use. Still, officers used neck restraints about 430 times since 2012, with people losing consciousness in 68 of those cases.
More than half of the people involved in neck restraint incidents were black. According to the latest census data, about 19% of people living in Minneapolis are black.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, in a news conference
Friday afternoon, described the decision to ban chokeholds as “a pretty damn low bar, in terms of things we hadn’t had.”
“For those who think now is not the right time, and those who think that we need to think about this a little longer have certainly not been paying attention,” Walz said. “If you needed the wake-up call, it happened last Monday and continues to right now.”
In addition, the negotiated agreement also seeks to strengthen the requirement for officers to intervene if their colleagues are using too much force. It requires them to “immediately report the incident while still on scene by phone or radio to their Commander or their Commander’s superiors.”
It also notes that “regardless of tenure or rank,” officers must “attempt to safely intervene by verbal and physical means,” and notes that if they don’t, they “shall be subject to discipline to the same severity as if they themselves engaged in the prohibited use of force.”
The most recent publicly posted policy indicates that officers are required “to protect the public and other employees.