Police ban use of controversial tactic
The so-called ‘carotid hold’ involves putting pressure on the neck
MOUNTAIN VIEW >> Police here have joined other departments in California in saying they will discontinue the use of the so-called “carotid hold” after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer.
The city’s police department tweeted Monday that they had updated their policy in accordance with state recommendations, likely referring in part to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s call for an end to instruction of the controversial technique.
Newsom said at a press briefing Friday that he had ordered the California Peace Officers Standards and Training to stop teaching new officers to use the technique. For the “sleeper hold” maneuver, an officer incapacitates a suspect by cutting off circulation of an artery in the neck, briefly restricting blood to the brain and causing them to pass out.
Newsom also said he wanted law enforcement agencies statewide to stop using the hold.
“We train techniques on strangleholds that put people’s lives at risk,” he said.
The restraint has come under scrutiny in the wake of Floyd’s death on Memorial Day, while being taken into custody by four Minneapolis police officers. One of the officers, Derek Chauvin, kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes.
While Chauvin’s restraint method was not a carotid hold, his actions have nonetheless sparked a national dialogue about police use of force. Chauvin, 44, has been charged with seconddegree murder without intent, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The other officers, J Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao, have been charged as accomplices.
Following widespread protests in cities and towns up and down the state, more than a dozen law enforcement agencies, including the San Diego police and the sheriff’s department, have announced that they would stop officers from using the restraint, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Assemblyman Mike Gipson (D-Carson) announced Friday a bill that would ban the holds throughout California.
“We all witnessed this execution,” said Gipson, the lead author of AB 1196. “This was far beyond the existing law that authorizes a peace officer to use reasonable force to effect the arrest, to prevent escape or to overcome resistance.”