Colorado’s three largest police departments changed their policies regarding chokeholds in the last three days as those protesting police brutality in Colorado and across the country call for the end of the technique.
But people using the word “chokehold” can mean multiple things.
There are generally two types of chokes discussed in policing: a respiratory chokehold and a carotid hold. In a respiratory chokehold, the attacker uses their arm across the front of another person’s neck, blocking their airways and making it so they cannot breathe. In a carotid hold, the attacker is using their arm around the neck and placing pressure on the sides of the neck to slow the blood flowing through two large arteries there in an attempt to render the person unconscious.
To people unfamiliar with law enforcement technique, the two can be difficult to distinguish in videos or photos of police actions. Colorado law and most police policy treat the two very differently, though both techniques are coming under heightened scrutiny as protests of the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police continue in many of the country’s major cities.
Colorado law bans law enforcement from using a chokehold to block someone’s breathing, except when the officer is legally justified in using deadly force. A bill making its way through the state legislature with near unanimous support would ban the use of respiratory chokeholds in all situations.
Neither the law nor the bill address carotid holds. Although some Colorado law enforcement agencies consider the carotid hold deadly force, other agencies use the hold outside of lethal encounters, including the Adams County Sheriff’s Office and the Loveland Police Department.
“One of the issues with all of these neck restraints is that they require a lot of training and they require a lot of skill to apply it correctly when someone is moving and struggling,” said Paul Taylor, a former police trainer and an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Denver who studies law enforcement.
It can also be difficult for an officer to tell if the person they are holding is still conscious and breathing, Taylor added.
The Denver Police Department on Sunday banned all uses of carotid and respiratory holds after pressure from protesters and by recommendation of the department’s use-of-force committee. The Colorado Springs Police Department banned both holds on Monday in anticipation of the passage of the police reform bill, spokesman Lt. Jim Sokolik said.
The Aurora Police Department announced Tuesday afternoon that it also will ban carotid holds. The prior policy allowed officers to use the carotid hold against people who show “violent resistance” but stated the method should be used only when other options are not successful or possible. The decision follows protests there over the death of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old who died in August after a police encounter. One of the officers involved in that encounter used a carotid hold on McClain.
“Not only myself, but all major city chiefs, we all need to look at how we do business,” Aurora interim Chief Vanessa Wilson said in a news conference Tuesday. “And the public is demanding that. We work for the public.”
The Denver Post reviewed use of force policies of a more than a dozen large law enforcement agencies across the Front Range. Here’s what the policies said about carotid holds and chokeholds.
- Bans both respiratory chokeholds and carotid holds in all situations: Denver Police Department, Colorado Springs Police Department, Aurora Police Department, Lakewood Police Department, Douglas County Sheriff’s Office
- Allows chokeholds and carotid holds in lethal force situations: Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, Thornton Police Department, Pueblo Police Department
- Allows carotid holds in situations that do not require lethal force: Adams County Sheriff Office, Loveland Police Department, Grand Junction Police Department
The Adams County Sheriff Office has not considered changing its policy on carotid holds in light of the killing of Floyd and the protests that followed, Cmdr. Paul Gregory, a spokesman, said. The agency is always evaluating its use of force policy and any attempt to change the rules entail a lengthy process, he said.
“We would not make a decision hastily,” Gregory said.
The technique used by the Minneapolis police officer who killed Floyd is neither a respiratory choke nor a carotid hold and would not be in line with any modern policy or training, Taylor said. The officer, Derek Chauvin, placed his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than 8 minutes, despite Floyd’s repeated warnings that he couldn’t breathe.
“What we see in that case is adaptation,” Taylor said. “How many officers are doing that across the country? Their behavior can drift from what they’re taught in the academy. The system produced (Chauvin) and produced that behavior so we need to understand how that happened.”
The case exemplifies that strong policy is not always enough to prevent excessive force, Taylor said. Adaptation from training and policy standards are common in policing, especially when ongoing training on technique is limited, Gregory said.
That’s how carotid holds can become dangerous. While they can be relatively safe when applied properly, even a slight shift in where pressure is applied can start to impair someone’s breathing or break a small bone in the throat that can then damage airways, Taylor said.
“We’re allowing officers to drift and develop their own techniques on the street instead of providing the ongoing training they need,” he said.
Colorado law enforcement are required to undergo two hours of training on neck restraints in the academy, according to the Colorado Peace Officer Standards and Training manual.
“I don’t think officers are getting enough training on a regular basis to use a carotid restraint, unless they’re getting training outside the system,” Taylor said. “And that has its own issues.”
Update: This story was updated on June 11 to reflect policy changes made by the Lakewood Police Department and the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office since the story’s publication.
