Many police forces lack chokehold rules
George Floyd’s death by police prompts calls to ban harmful maneuvers, tactics
Despite a broad consensus about the danger of using a “neck restraint” maneuver to detain suspects, major police agencies in Central Florida and across the state have yet to explicitly ban the technique or even address the controversial practice in their policies.
Video of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on the neck of George Floyd for more than 8 minutes during an arrest May 25, even as the 46-year-old black man pleaded that he could not breathe and lost consciousness, has drawn nationwide condemnation and protests. It also has also brought attention to neck restraint tactics.
Law enforcement leaders across the nation, including Orlando police Chief Orlando Rolón and Orange County Sheriff John Mina, have almost universally decried the actions of Chauvin.
But many agencies in Florida — including the Orlando Police Department — do not explicitly prohibit the use of neck restraints, which typically refers to when an officer uses an arm or leg to press into a person’s neck while taking them into custody.
Experts say that leaves unnecessary room for error.
“There is no room for [neck restraints] in modern law enforcement,” said Chris Burbank, of the Center for Policing Equity, a think tank that promotes community policing. “There are too many other tools available to officers; it is not a necessary tactic.”
The Orlando Sentinel reviewed use-of-force policies from 11 of the largest law enforcement agencies in Central Florida and across the state, and found only five agencies mentioned the use of neck restraints. Four severely restricted the use of the tactic — but one condones it.
The Miami-Dade Police Department was the only agency the Sentinel reviewed that explicitly allowed, in policy, officers to use a type of neck restraint during a situation that did not call for lethal force. The Lake County Sheriff’s Office also teaches its deputies a form of neck restraint, which a spokesman said is allowed under its policy governing “less” lethal alternatives to deadly force, though it’s not mentioned explicitly.
The other four agencies that addressed such techniques in their use of force policies, including the Orange and Broward county sheriff’s offices, severely limited their use, reserving the practice for when a suspect’s actions justify deputies using deadly force.
The Orlando Police Department does not currently ban the tactic, though the agency said officers aren’t taught to use it and don’t.
U.S. Rep. Val Demings, D-Orlando, who was OPD chief from 2007 through 2011, called earlier this week for an across-the-board ban on neck restraint techniques by officers, which many agencies across the U.S. have started to do, if they hadn’t already.
“We’re talking about much more than chokeholds, we’re talking about neck restraints, any restraint above the shoulders of any kind, needs to be just banned,” Demings said Wednesday in a NAACP discussion.
That’s something the Center for Policing Equity wants to see implemented nationwide, Burbank said.
But most Florida law enforcement agencies contacted by the Sentinel don’t have policies on neck restraints. When asked, most agencies said it is not among the tactics for controlling suspects that officers are trained to use.
“If it’s not laid out in the manual and you’re not following proper use of the technique, then that’s not something you should be doing,” said Kenneth Adams, a UCF criminal justice professor.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Criminal Justice Standards & Training Commission, which sets minimum training standards for officers across the state, teaches vascular neck restraints as an approved defense tactic, FDLE spokeswoman Jessica Cary wrote in a statement this week.
Cary said it’s up to the discretion of training centers and local agencies to decide if recruits receive this training.
“What was seen in the video of Mr. Floyd which had a knee on his neck, and what officers can be taught as [vascular neck restraints] is not the same thing,” Cary said. “There is no training for a knee on the neck.”
‘Statement of leadership’
The sheriff’s offices in Orange, Broward, and Volusia counties, as well as the Sanford Police Department, have severely limited the use of neck restraints or chokeholds in most circumstances. The exception, according to their policies: as a last resort when officers are dealing with physical resistance that would authorize lethal force.
The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office reserves what it calls “neck holds” for circumstances that warrant lethal force, and its policy describes four types of neck holds that could be used in such scenarios, including one that is “a knee or other object to the back of a prone subject’s neck.”
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office policy says that “neck restraints are prohibited, however empty hands techniques may be utilized in circumstances or situations … [of] aggravated physical resistance.” Michelle Guido, a spokeswoman for the agency, said an “empty hand technique” includes striking someone, but did not say if it could include neck restraint.
Sheriff John Mina told WFTVChannel 9 that such tactics might be used if “there’s a struggle for a gun [or] the officers felt their lives were in danger.”
Burbank said he doesn’t think there’s any need for agencies to have an exception to allow such restraints written into policy, because officers already have leeway to protect themselves or the public in any way necessary when faced with the threat of severe bodily harm or death.
And especially at this moment in history — with protests nationwide calling for the end of police brutality, especially against people of color — Burbank urged all law enforcement and city leaders to ban neck restraints if they haven’t already, as he did while police chief in Salt Lake City. He called the risk associated with the technique “tremendous.”
“Why would you not as a police leader, a mayor, come out and simply say, ‘I am banning the chokehold,’” Burbank said. “That is a statement of leadership that costs nothing.”
Rolón, Orlando’s police chief, said at a press conference this week that his agency does not train officers in the neck restraint.
But the OPD use of force policy does not directly address the technique. The Sentinel asked if OPD is planning to update its policy to ban such techniques, but spokespeople did not answer the question.
Mayor Buddy Dyer announced Thursday that he would join an effort by former President Barack Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper Alliance to look at police policies on the local level, promising to “review our use of force policies, engage residents in the process and make any changes that must be made.”
“Orlando is committed to action,” he posted on Twitter. “And as a community, we must continue to engage with each other to make change.”
Officials at the Seminole and Osceola county sheriff ’s offices, as well as the Kissimmee Police Department, also said their officers are not trained to use the neck restraint.
None of them explicitly prohibit its use.
Out of date?
The Miami-Dade Police Department and Lake County Sheriff ’s Office both teach the practice, according to the agencies.
The Miami-Dade Police Department said officers are taught the “Applied Carotid Triangle Restraint,” which is a “vascular neck restraint,” according to department spokesman Angel Rodriguez.
Officers trained in the tactic can use it even when lethal force is not justified, the use of force policy says. It details how officers should then respond after using the restraint, including what to do if a person becomes unconscious.
“If the subject does not revive after 30 seconds and is not breathing, artificial respiration should be administered. If no pulse is found, cardiopulmonary resuscitation should be administered, and a [Miami-Dade Fire Rescue] unit shall be requested to the scene in an emergency mode,” the policy said.
Lake County sheriff’s spokesman Lt. John Herrell said a “lateral vascular neck restraint” is taught to deputies through Florida Department of Law Enforcement training “just in case they ever find themselves in a situation where perhaps other, lesser options for control have proven ineffective.”
The term “neck restraint” isn’t used in the agency’s use of force policy, but a “restraint hold” is mentioned as a type of less-lethal “personal physical force,” not meant to kill. Herrell told the Sentinel a vascular neck restraint would fall under this section.
WFTV reported that the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office also trains deputies in vascular neck restraint. Sheriff’s offices in Hillsborough County and Jacksonville did not provide their useof-force policies in response to a Sentinel request.
The Tampa Police Department’s policies do not mention neck restraints or chokeholds, and a spokeswoman did not respond to further questions about whether officers are trained to use them or if the technique is allowed in any circumstances.
While there are not universal use-of-force guidelines for agencies, a tactic like a neck restraint usually isn’t explicitly mentioned in policies unless it’s forbidden, said Gene Paoline, a UCF criminal justice professor. He said chokeholds used to be more common in the 1970s but have slowly fallen out of practice, as technology has given officers more options, like stun guns.
Along with the physical danger of chokeholds, Burbank said the optics of officers using the tactic on civilians can be detrimental to community-police relations.
“It’s an archaic thing that needs to be done away with,” Burbank said. “It is just not justifiable.”