SDPD END TO USE OF CAROTID RESTRAINT PRAISED

Activists call move a big win, but say more reform needed

Local activists on Tuesday applauded the decision to end the use of a neck hold known as the carotid restraint by San Diego Police Department officers, calling it a huge win but saying there is much more to be done to reform policing.

San Diego police Chief David Nisleit said Monday that, effective immediately, his department would no longer use the controversial restraint, which has been banned or restricted by other large departments across the country.

The policy change came after a week of protests and riots locally and nationally following the death of George Floyd, a black man who was in handcuffs and pleading that he could not breathe as a Minneapolis police officer kept a knee on Floyd’s neck for several minutes. The incident was caught on video.

San Diego, like cities across the nation, has seen days of demonstrations decrying police mistreatment of people of color, and some of the afternoon protests last weekend turned riotous after dark.

The announcement of the policy change came as a welcome surprise for

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those who had been fighting for it.

“It gives me joy that they have finally decided to ban this,” said San Diego resident Desiree Smith, who said her son had been put in the hold in 2014, when he was 15, and that it happened on campus at Lincoln High School. Smith said that, in the aftermath, her son was left traumatized.

Smith is one of the founders of the Racial Justice Coalition, which since fall 2017 — and as recently as a news conference Friday — has been pushing to end law enforcement’s use of the carotid restraint.

In such a hold, officers use an arm to put pressure on the sides of a person’s neck. If it’s applied correctly, the person can fall unconscious. Police leaders have said it can resolve incidents before needing to turn to deadlier force like use of a gun.

But it can lead to injury or death. Critics assail it as dangerous, and say it is used disproportionately on people of color.

San Diego police used the hold 574 times between 2013 and 2018, and about 70 times last year.

After making the announcement Monday, Nisleit told the Union-tribune that the community had asked for the change, “and I thought it was time. I’ve explained that to the officers. There is no doubt I believe this is the right decision.”

On Tuesday, professor Darwin Fishman, also a member of the Racial Justice

Coalition, said that, for San Diego, ending the use of the hold “is a radical win and an extraordinary win.”

“There is little police reform taking place in San Diego,” Fishman said. “I am hoping this really actually opens the door and we can get changes with the police force.” was an easy calculation to make.”

She said the decision was “a concession” that came as a “result of the unrest following the killing of George Floyd, and we have to be very clear about that.”

Nisleit’s order to end the practice does not necessarily mean it is gone for good in

as well as the state of California — that the Racial Justice Coalition says it will now take its fight.

“I don’t want anybody else to get hurt (or) killed,” Smith said.

The founders said they are hoping to get political backing for their push, and noted that county Supervisor Nathan Fletcher penned a letter Monday asking Sheriff Bill Gore to end the practice.

On Monday, the Sheriff ’s Department said it “continuously” reviews use-of-force policies and procedures, and that the sheriff has declined to stop using the carotid restraint. “It is important to have as many options available to deputies without resorting to impact weapons or lethal force,” a department spokesman said in an email Monday. In 2019, local deputies used the restraint 66 times.

Other policing reforms are in the works, including a ballot measure calling for establishing an independent policing commission in San Diego, one that activists say should have subpoena powers and other teeth in it. The ballot language is still in the works. San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and District Attorney Summer Stephan have expressed support for the proposal.

And on Tuesday, city leaders announced two advisory committees were holding emergency meetings this week to address issued such as de-escalation policies and the protesting.