Can Boise Police Department use neck restraints? Mostly no — with one exception
When Boise Police Chief Ryan Lee allegedly broke a high-ranking officer’s neck in October while demonstrating a hold, a tort claim filed against Lee mentioned a controversial use-of-force technique that has been banned by agencies across the country.
Boise police suspended use of the lateral vascular neck restraint technique in 2020, following the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was murdered by a Minneapolis officer. Mention of the lateral vascular neck restraint technique raised questions about whether the hold was back in effect.
Boise police spokesperson Haley Williams, who declined to say whether Lee had been demonstrating the hold on the officer, told the Idaho Statesman that use of the hold was still suspended, with one caveat: It can be used when deadly force is authorized.
And despite its limited use by Boise police, Idaho law enforcement officers still get trained on the neck hold, said Kevin Graham, training coordinator for Idaho Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST).
What is a lateral vascular neck restraint?
According to the tort claim filed by the sergeant, and obtained by the Idaho Statesman through a records request, Lee’s briefing involved an October incident in which a Boise officer used the lateral vascular neck restraint to control a suspect.
The officer’s claim alleged that during the October briefing, Lee “grabbed the back of Sgt. Rush’s neck and forced him toward the ground.” It’s unclear from the claim whether the maneuver used by Lee was the lateral vascular neck restraint.
A lateral vascular neck restraint, when done properly, places pressure on an individual’s carotid artery and diminishes blood flow to the brain, causing the person to pass out. In 2020, shortly after the death of Floyd, the Boise Police Department announced it would suspend the use of the neck hold.
Williams told the Statesman in early June that the hold hasn’t been used since its suspension.
Retired Ada County Sheriff Gary Raney, who consults with law enforcement agencies across the country on use of force, told the Statesman the restraint is controversial because it’s a dangerous tactic.
Raney said the hold has caused death, whether it’s through an incorrect technique or use on someone with underlying medical issues.
“Most large metropolitan agencies in the United States have gotten away from using it and no longer use it,” Raney said, referring to the hold. “It is difficult because it is an effective technique.”
If an officer is at the point in which they need to use a lateral restraint, Raney said, there aren’t many other options left that are safer than the hold. One option, Raney said, is for an officer to strike someone with their hands or feet.
“So what’s more harmful, striking somebody in the head or using an LVNR?” Raney said. “And this kind of discussion has gone back and forth for several years.”
But some major cities have been less reluctant to ban neck holds. The city of Miami — which has a population of about 450,000 people — banned the use of neck restraints nearly 30 years ago, after a 1993 incident left an individual in a coma, former Miami Police Chief Jorge Colina told the Statesman by phone.
“After George Floyd, (agencies) took the additional step of saying, ‘It really is kind of hard to justify teaching this technique that we know can take somebody’s life,’ ” Colina said. “It is understood that if your life is in danger, you can do whatever it is that you think you need to do to save your own life.”
How commonly used was the hold in Boise?
In 2020, before Lee joined Boise Police, the department announced it would suspend the hold and cited public input as one of the main reasons for its decision, the Statesman previously reported. Last year the moratorium was “extended indefinitely,” unless deadly force is authorized, according to an executive order signed by Lee.
The Statesman previously reported that Boise officers used the LVNR technique 37 times in 2019. In 2020, the hold was used eight times before it was suspended in June, Williams told the Statesman by email.
The lateral vascular restraint was also often described as the carotid control. They’re essentially the same restraint, Raney said, and the terms were used interchangeably by law enforcement agencies.
Graham told the Statesman that both terms refer to a hold that cuts off an individual’s blood flow to their brain and renders them unconscious. Graham said an officer should avoid cutting off a suspect’s air supply, and an individual’s breathing shouldn’t be “affected whatsoever.”
Graham added that the training teaches safeguards to ensure the hold is done correctly, including a time restriction. Graham said that officers should never perform the hold for longer than 15 seconds, and the person afterward should be sitting up or be in the recovery position, which allows an individual’s airway to remain open.
Individuals should be placed on their side with their top leg bent at an angle and their top arm placed across their chest with their hand on their cheek.
If an officer held the hold for an extended time and the suspect doesn’t regain consciousness within 30 seconds, Graham said, medical personnel should be called, and life-saving measures should be performed immediately. Additionally, no matter if the hold was performed perfectly, the individual should still be examined by medics.
Despite those needed steps, Graham told the Statesman that as long as officers use the proper technique, “it’s absolutely safe.”
Graham acknowledged that even if a hold is done properly, if the individual has other underlying issues, then that’s “where we run into other problems.” Graham gave the example of someone on drugs.
In Colorado, a Black man who had a blood circulation disorder was declared brain dead and then died in 2019 after an encounter with police, when two carotid holds were performed on the 23-year-old. Elijah McClain’s death prompted all neck holds to be banned in Colorado.
“Unfortunately, it gets blamed on the hold,” Graham said.
Biden bans neck restraints for federal agencies
After the murder of Floyd and the public outcry that followed, agencies across the U.S. — including the Boise Police Department — limited the use of neck restraints.
The 46-year-old Black man died after a then-Minneapolis officer kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds. The former officer was convicted of murder last year.
Aside from Boise, at least 32 other major metropolitan police agencies have changed their policies on neck restraints or banned them since Floyd’s highly publicized killing, according to the Washington Post. That included major cities in the West, such as the Seattle and Portland police departments.
Last month, Democratic President Joe Biden took action to strengthen police accountability for federal law enforcement agencies.
On May 25, Biden signed an executive order that banned the use of chokeholds and carotid restraints unless deadly force is authorized. The order applies to over 80 federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Drug Enforcement Administration.
The order also mandates the use of body cameras, specifically during arrests and searches, and plans to create a national database of police misconduct.
“(The slaying of George Floyd) sparked one of the largest social movements this country has ever seen, with calls from all corners to acknowledge the legacy of systemic racism in our criminal justice system and in our institutions more broadly,” according to a statement from the White House.
Graham said that even if the POST Academy chose to follow in Biden’s footsteps, the department would likely still teach the carotid hold as the restraint is still allowed when deadly force is authorized.
“I think it’ll always be taught, and it will just be individual department policies that dictate whether they can use it on things less than deadly force,” Graham told the Statesman.
Miami police don’t teach officers hold
Miami police officers are also allowed to use the hold when deadly force is authorized, according to the department’s manual. But department officials don’t encourage its officers to learn the technique, Colina said.
“If there is an agency that is teaching the technique as a last resort, we will not allow our officers to participate in that training,” said Colina, who now runs his own consulting firm.
Colina said the Miami Police Department doesn’t teach neck restraints within its academy because the agency doesn’t want officers to assume they know how to use the hold.
“We don’t someone to think: ‘Well, they taught it to me in the academy. What do you mean I can’t use it?’ ” Colina said referring to why they don’t teach the hold anymore.
Even if officers attended annual training to practice neck restraints, it wouldn’t be enough, Colina said. He said the technique must be used constantly to ensure it’s not incorrectly done.
Colina said that other local departments were “surprised to learn” that the city of Miami had already banned the hold before Floyd’s murder.
“Well, wait a minute, a major metropolitan police department banned it 25 years ago, and they seem to be able to function just fine, and if their officers have to take forceful action against someone, they still do,” Colina said. “I think they were surprised by that, and I think that that made them less reluctant to take the additional step.”
How Treasure Valley agencies use neck restraints
Nearly every law enforcement agency throughout the Treasure Valley — aside from Boise police — allows their officers to use the carotid hold, according to a review of the departments’ manuals and email responses from their respective spokespeople.
But the departments have restrictions in place.
Policies for the Meridian, Caldwell and Nampa police departments, along with Canyon and Ada County sheriff’s offices, outlined specific situations when the hold can be used — including when a subject is violent, physically resists, intends to be violent, or seems “reasonably” able to potentially harm someone, agencies’ spokespeople said.
Some of the departments go a step further by stating law enforcement personnel should avoid the hold on pregnant people, the elderly, juveniles and handcuffed or restrained individuals who are not resisting.
Canyon County spokesperson Joe Decker said the sheriff’s office approach also restricts the hold on individuals who appear to have Down syndrome or have “obvious neck deformities or malformations, or visible neck injuries.”
When asked why an officer would opt to use a neck restraint over a firearm, Graham said it’s just an option, especially in a close-quarters situation. Graham compared the use of a carotid hold to an officer shooting someone. A suspect would be more likely to stay alive if an officer uses a carotid control hold instead of a gun.
“If deadly force is authorized, and you have the opportunity to use a carotid (hold), really, you’re saving that person’s life,” Graham said.
Raney said that the retraining process is a challenge in Idaho.
Agencies within more urban areas — like the Treasure Valley — won’t have any problem getting retrained on the neck restraint or other uses of force but that becomes much more difficult in Idaho’s rural areas.
“I sometimes fear that it may sort of pop up as, ‘Oh, yeah, I remember this back in POST — it’s been five years — but I think I’m gonna use it now,’ ” Raney said. “And maybe it’s not applied correctly.”
