By: Bill Bush
A state panel on Friday banned “choke holds” and similar restraints from being used by police agencies across the state except in situations where deadly force is justified.
All law enforcement agencies across the state are expected to meet or exceed the new standard, set by the 12-member Ohio Collaborative Community Police Advisory Board which creates and implements law-enforcement certification standards.
The board’s action was in response to recent federal changes that said in order to be eligible for any federal law-enforcement grants, police agencies must ban the use of choke holds except in circumstances where deadly force is needed.
Many police departments have already banned choke holds and similar “vascular neck restraints,” which are designed to restrict blood flow to the brain and cause the subject to be rendered unconscious and subdued.
Under Ohio’s new guidance, such choke holds can only be used by officers in the following circumstances: to defend themselves from serious physical injury or death; to defend another person from serious physical injury or death; or under specific “reasonableness” standards set by the U.S. and Ohio Supreme Court decisions concerning the use of deadly force.
The easiest way for departments to get into compliance and not risk losing federal funds would be to promptly change their use-of-deadly-force policies and training, and inserting the required limitations on choke holds — which many have already done, according to the panel discussion on Friday.
“I don’t know any police agency that specifically authorizes or trains on choke holds or vascular restraints, and many have already gone ahead and banned them,” Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien, a member of the panel, said during the virtual meeting.
Choke holds were re-examined nationally after the Minneapolis police arrest in May of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who was accused by a convenience store employee of passing a counterfeit $20 bill. Floyd died after an officer held a knee to his neck while he was handcuffed and pinned to the ground by several officers.
According to news reports, the Minneapolis Police Department’s policy manual allowed the use of neck restraints to render suspects unconscious “on a subject who is exhibiting active aggression,” or “active resistance in order to gain control of the subject; and if lesser attempts at control have been or would likely be ineffective.”
Minneapolis police subdued people this way at least 237 times over five years, with 16% of subjects losing consciousness, according to the department’s use-of-force records reviewed by NBC News. The majority of those who were the subjects of choke holds were Black, the report said.
Earlier this year, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine called for the collaborative to address choke holds and mass protests in response to the death of Floyd and the nationwide protests that followed.
“We must rebuild trust between the public and law enforcement, and these changes continue to build on Ohio’s work to improve community-police relations,” DeWine said in a written statement Friday. “Law enforcement agencies that are certified in the Ohio Collaborative’s standards show commitment to following, and oftentimes exceeding, Ohio’s best practices for serving and protecting our diverse communities.”
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