Sacramento police used ‘risky’ neck hold more than other agencies. What AG says must change
Sacramento Police Department officers have used the now-banned carotid neck restraint more often than other departments in California, according to a state report released Wednesday.
Sacramento police officers used carotid holds, designed to cut blood flow to the brain, an average of nine times per year between 2016 and 2018, according to a new report from Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s office. By comparison, between 2008 and 2011, the Los Angeles Police Department used the hold an average of once per year, the report said.
“DOJ reviewers observed more than 12 instances in which an officer appeared to have other force options or de-escalation tactics available, but chose instead to use the risky carotid restraint hold,” the report said. “SPD’s aggregate use-of-force data indicate that SPD officers have resorted to using the carotid restraint hold more frequently than peer agencies of similar size, and likely more than they ultimately should have given the circumstances.”
The AG’s 2019 report, completed after the police killing of Stephon Clark, recommended that the department ban or at least significantly limit the carotid hold. In response, the department limited its use to only times when not using it could cause serious injury or death, Police Chief Daniel Hahn told Mayor Darrell Steinberg.
Then, following the police death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the hold came under increased scrutiny. San Diego and a slew of other California departments banned the hold. Shortly after, Gov. Gavin Newsom backed a bill that would ban the hold and also announced he would remove it from statewide police training. That prompted Sacramento to delete the hold as an acceptable use-of-force tactic on June 8.
The new report urges the department to add language to its policy that officially de-authorizes the hold, along with any other maneuver that cuts off flow of blood or oxygen to the brain, the report said.
“By expressly stating that the carotid control hold and similar tactics are no longer authorized, SPD will provide clear guidance to officers that the tactic is no longer acceptable, and that using such tactics is a policy violation that may result in disciplinary action,” the report reads.
Just four days before Newsom backed a statewide ban of the hold, a Sacramento officer used a neck restraint on a Black teenager. The use-of-force, following a peaceful protest against police brutality downtown on June 1, was caught on video.
It’s not clear whether the officer was using or attempting to use the carotid, but the carotid was the only remaining neck restraint allowed by the department, a June 15 news release from the mayor’s office said.
The department has still not said whether that officer, or any officers, will face discipline for use-of-force actions during the protests that occurred in late May and early June in downtown and Oak Park.
The department has also not released the number of misconduct allegations it received following the protests, how many of its officers are under investigation for use-of-force and whether any were disciplined. The Sacramento Bee filed a Public Records Act request for that information on June 10. The department has not provided it, despite receiving letters from the newspaper’s attorney threatening legal action.
By contrast, Los Angeles on June 10 released the number of misconduct allegations it received from the protests, which occurred there roughly the same nights as in Sacramento.
Steinberg said the city’s incoming new inspector general could potentially investigate the use-of-force incidents that occurred during the recent protests. A federal lawsuit has been filed against the police department over injuries allegedly caused by officers’ rubber bullets, bean bag guns and tear gas.
The department should conduct a “prompt and detailed inquiry and after-action assessment” of officer conduct in the protests and report the results to the community, the report said.
This story was originally published July 9, 2020 at 11:14 AM.
