Modesto joins other police agencies in ending the use of carotid neck hold
The Modesto Police Department is joining law enforcement agencies across California in no longer using a type of neck hold called a carotid restraint after the May 25 death of George Floyd.
Police Chief Galen Carroll issued an email to his officers Wednesday stating the department would stop using the restraint, which involves officers applying pressure to both sides of a suspect’s neck, cutting off the supply of oxygenated blood to the brain. Turlock Police Chief Nino Amirfar also said in a letter to the community he was discontinuing the use of the hold as of June 8.
When applied properly, the restraint causes a suspect to lose consciousness in seconds, according to a manual from the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, which sets selection and training standards for law enforcement in California.
The suspect will regain consciousness within seconds, but that is enough time for officers to handcuff him.
“I have notified MPD that the Carotid will no longer be an authorized use of force based on demands from the public that we serve,” Carroll said in an email to The Bee. “It was used sparingly, and I believe that it was a tool that should be available to officers in the circumstances (that) warrant its use and allow someone to be safely taken into custody without higher levels of force up to an including deadly force being used.”
Modesto used carotid seven times in 2019
Carroll said in an interview that his officers used the carotid restraint seven times last year. For context, Modesto officers averaged 175 uses of all types of force annually from 2017 through 2019, according to Police Department statistics.
Carroll said in his nearly eight years as police chief, Modesto officers have never injured anyone when using the carotid restraint. But he said while it has been an effective tool he reiterated what he said in his email: “You have to police a community the way it wants to be policed.”
Carroll’s decision comes as Gov. Gavin Newsom has called for “the end of the carotid hold and other like techniques in California,” according to a June 5 news release from his office, and directed the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training to stop teaching the technique
Newsom also supports the Legislature’s Black and Latino caucuses’ legislation to ban the use of the restraint. And more than a dozen police and sheriff’s departments across California have stopped using the carotid restraint.
National outrage over Floyd’s death
This is part of the national response to Floyd’s death while in the custody of Minneapolis police. Floyd died as a since-fired white officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes while Floyd, a Black man, said he could not breathe. The former officer, Derek Chauvin, and three other former officers have been charged in Floyd’s death.
Law enforcement officials across the country have condemned Chauvin’s actions but said they were in no way similar to the correct use of the carotid restraint. But Floyd’s death has renewed the debate about police use of force, including the use of neck restraints.
Carroll said in his email there is a misconception among the public between the proper use of a carotid restraint and a chokehold, in which pressure is applied to the windpipe. Carroll said that is very ineffective and potentially dangerous because it can break bones in a suspect’s neck.
But the POST training manual said the incorrect use of the carotid restraint, such as cutting off oxygen to the brain for more than a minute, tilting, turning or jerking the neck, or applying pressure to the front or the back of the neck, can result in brain damage, paralysis or death.
This story was originally published June 22, 2020 at 12:56 PM.
