Miami-Dade Police Dept. bans use of chokeholds

Agency was 1 of 2 in state that allowed method

The Miami-Dade Police Department is banning its officers from using chokeholds, a tactic George Floyd protesters want to see eliminated.

That agency was one of two in South Florida that allowed neck restraints to be used as non-lethal force, according to a South Florida Sun Sentinel review of 24 use-of-force policies. The Hialeah Police Department also allows the use of strangleholds to subdue unruly people.

Most agencies, including the Broward Sheriff ’s Office and Fort Lauderdale Police Department, limit chokeholds to situations where deadly force is justified.

Alfredo “Freddy” Ramirez III, director of the Miami-Dade Police Department, wrote on Twitter the decision was based on officer and public safety, along with feedback from law enforcement experts, the community and local leaders.

The Miami-Dade Police Department’s use-of-force policy authorized officers to use a tactic called the Applied Carotid Triangle Restraint, a type of stranglehold that cuts off blood to the brain.

Sgt. Ibel Perez, a spokesman for the Hialeah Police Department, has not responded to inquires from the Sun Sentinel into whether that agency is looking at revising its policy.

A technique called the Vascular Neck Restraint, better known as a sleeper hold, is approved to be taught on an optional basis to police recruits, said Jessica Cary, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

But nothing in Florida’s training protocols teaches officers to place a knee on a person’s neck, Cary said.

Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee for eight minutes and 46 seconds to the neck of Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed black man accused of buying cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill, according to a criminal complaint. Chauvin is now facing second-degree murder, thirddegree murder and manslaughter charges. Three other officers have been charged with aiding and abetting for not intervening.

All four officers were fired a day after Floyd’s death on Memorial Day.

Two other South Florida agencies revised their policies in the wake of Floyd’s death. The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and the Wilton Manors Police Department added language to limit the use of neck restraints to deadly-force situations.