Good riddance to neck-restraint tactic
An excerpted editorial from the Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
It wasn’t easy to tell from the swirl of discussion whether the tactic Derek Chauvin used against George Floyd was a sanctioned use of force under Minneapolis police procedures. The early word from people like Mayor Jacob Frey and police spokesman John Elder was no. And perhaps by that they meant the length of time Mr. Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd’s neck, or the fact that Floyd was already handcuffed, or the fact that he died.
Yet there it was in the police department’s policy and procedure manual, section 5-311, “Use of neck restraints and choke holds,” with dates of last prior revision.
Consider it gone. Under an agreement approved unanimously by the Minneapolis City Council on Friday, officers would be forbidden from using both neck restraints and chokeholds. They also would be required to intervene when inappropriate force is used.
It was clearly necessary to abolish the tactics. Last week NBC News, citing the MPD’s use -of-force records, reported that officers in the city had used neck restraints 237 times since 2015, and in 44 of those instances — 16% of the time — had rendered people unconscious. Since Floyd’s death, law enforcement experts have widely denounced the technique as inherently dangerous, although that is not new knowledge. Merely leaving someone handcuffed and facedown for too long, let alone with added pressure, poses risks.
Tragic results notwithstanding, the MPD has made an effort to improve its use-of-force policy in recent years, emphasizing de-escalation and the “sanctity of life.” And it deserves credit for keeping use-of-force records — the NBC report noted that a lack of such data from other departments made it impossible to compare police use of neck-restraint tactics by city.
The City Council is beginning to discuss ambitious changes in how public safety is maintained. Its passion is both inspiring and a bit fearsome. Careful scrutiny is warranted for many of the ideas floated in recent days, but the agreement advanced on Friday is a solid first step.