LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Little Rock is banning police from using neck restraints following nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Mayor Frank Scott said Wednesday.
Scott signed an executive order banning the restraints’ use or officers being trained on them, and also requiring officers to intervene to stop their use if they witness it. Scott’s order also requires the city to create and maintain a database on the restraints’ use and any corrective taken against officers for using them.
The order follows days of protests in Arkansas and nationwide over Floyd’s death in Minneapolis. Floyd died May 25 after a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into his neck for almost eight minutes, even after Floyd stopped moving and pleading for air.
Minneapolis and other cities have since banned the use of chokeholds and neck restraints. Little Rock Police Chief Keith Humphrey said the department had already banned chokeholds but had allowed a technique known as a “vascular neck restraint.”
The order doesn’t prohibit an officer from using “any reasonable force” if because of actual physical contact they face immediate threat of death or serious injury to themselves or anyone in their immediate vicinity.
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