Seattle police ban neck holds

The Seattle Police Department announced Friday that it is banning neck holds and “carotid restraints,” or chokeholds, as part of an updated use-of-force policy.

An update from the department says that officers are now “prohibited from using neck and carotid restraints in all circumstances.”

The department’s policy previously stated that officers were prohibited from using such restraints “except when deadly force is justified.”

The move is part of changes in response to recent protests over police brutality and stems from several decisions made by the Seattle City Council on Monday, including banning the use of tear gas, pepper spray and the use of chokeholds to subdue suspects.

Neck holds and carotid restraints prohibited in new policy.https://t.co/BbMrjjt168

— Seattle Police Dept. (@SeattlePD) June 19, 2020

The city has already said that it would not use such measures on protesters who briefly took over City Hall and declared the Capitol Hill neighborhood a police-free “autonomous zone.”

Several police departments in places like Los Angeles, Phoenix and Austin, Texas, have banned the use of chokeholds after the protests sparked by the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis police custody after an officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

New York, Washington state and California are among the states that have moved to restrict or ban the use of chokeholds statewide.

Both Democrats and Republicans have proposed legislation addressing chokeholds, with Democrats seeking to ban them completely and Republicans seeking to ban only those that restrict air flow and not blood flow.

Protesters have also demanded the defunding of police, which other cities like New York City and Los Angeles have considered amid massive budget fallouts.