After six days of protest in San Diego and a week and half across the nation, the San Diego Sheriff’s Department and many local law enforcement agencies up and down San Diego County announced Wednesday they would immediately ban the use of the carotid restraint. Two days earlier the San Diego Police Department stated its officers would no longer use the chokehold or neck hold.
In statements, Sheriff Bill Gore said:
“In light of community concerns, and after consultation with many elected officials throughout the county, I am stopping the use of the carotid restraint by my deputies effective immediately. I have and always will listen to any feedback about the public safety services we provide.”
“Communities, by and large have spoken out against this technique. I have to listen. …
“I wanted to put that discussion behind us so that department wasn’t received as recalcitrant and unwilling to listen to the communities that we serve, because we do listen to them.”
Gore still believes the hold, when properly applied, is safe, he told The San Diego Union-Tribune. But he said sees that the public narrative has changed, especially after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Between them, the SDPD and Sheriff’s Department, have 4,500 officers.
The U-T:
The policy change came after a week of protests and riots locally and nationally following the death of Floyd, who was in handcuffs and pleading that he could not breathe as a Minneapolis police officer kept a knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes. The incident was caught on video.
San Diego County, like other places across the nation, has seen days of demonstrations, protests and even riots as people decry police mistreatment of communities of color.
After Gore’s announcement, Chula Vista police Chief Roxana Kennedy, who is also the president of the San Diego Chiefs’ and Sheriff’s Association, stated in a released announcement, all local policing agencies had “unanimously decided to discontinue the use of the carotid restraint hold effective immediately.”
Those agencies are:
- Carlsbad Police Department
- Chula Vista Police Department
- Coronado Police Department
- El Cajon Police Department
- Escondido Police Department
- La Mesa Police Department
- National City Police Department
- Oceanside Police Department
- San Diego Community College Police Department
- San Diego County Sheriff’s Department
- San Diego Harbor Police Department
- San Diego Police Department
- San Diego State University Police Department
- San Diego Unified School District Police Department
- University of California San Diego Police Department
So what’s the point of all the verbiage?
All San Diego Law Enforcement Agencies Ban Use Carotid Neck Restraint KPBS https://www.kpbs.org/news/2020/jun/04/every-law-enforcement-agency-san-diego-now-bans-us/