JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – In the wake of a grand jury's decision not to indict a New York City police officer in the choke-hold death of an unarmed man, News4Jax looked into what local law enforcement policies are regarding choke holds.
Choke holds are not allowed by the sheriff's offices in Jacksonville, Clay, Nassau and Baker counties, or the Florida Highway Patrol. The Bradford County Sheriff's Office does not have a policy.
The St. Johns County Sheriff's Office allows a lateral vascular neck restraint, but deputies say it's different from a choke hold because it does not cut off airflow, unlike the one in the New York case see on cellphone video.
"There are several types of neck restraints," News4Jax crime and safety analyst Gil Smith said while demonstrating. "This was once used by (the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office). This is how we were trained in the police academy back in 1988. ... My elbow is not on his neck and he can still breathe. If I were here, the arm would be cutting off the airway. Here he could still breath. This is one of the safest. Now his neck can't move and he won't be getting any neck injuries. The whole time I am going to be saying, 'Put your hands out in front.'
"The purpose of this or any restraint is to get the person to comply. So I am trying to arrest him. So I am trying to get his hands out in front so another officer can handcuff him. So I am giving him commands.
"But at the carotid artery, I could cut off the blood flow at both sides of the neck and stop the blood from flowing to the brain. The hands could go limp and I would immediately stop once he complies and his hands go limp. He would be handcuffed, and then I would release him."
In the 1990s, JSO did allow officers to use a type of neck restraint to get people to comply, but the death of two men within a year of each other forced then-Sheriff Nat Glover to ban it in Jacksonville.
Smith said there are other compliance techniques besides a neck restraint.