Most chokeholds banned in Beaufort Co. Sheriff’s Office revision of use of force rules
Beaufort County’s largest law enforcement agency now bans officers from using chokeholds except as a last resort and requires officers to intervene if they witness misconduct.
The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office made the changes to its use of force policy as part of accreditation, a process in which law enforcement agencies are evaluated for best policing practices. Becoming accredited also makes agencies eligible for more federal funding.
The changes did not happen in a vacuum.
As protests have rocked the nation following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police, the Bluffton Police Department recently changed one of its use of force policies as have 40 other police departments in major U.S. cities, according to a McClatchy survey.
Chokeholds
“All chokeholds and/or strangleholds are only used as a last resort when all defensive options have been exhausted and the deputy’s life or life of another are in jeopardy,” reads the new Sheriff’s Office policy.
Before the change, the Sheriff’s Office did not have a policy on chokeholds, according to Maj. Bob Bromage, and the agency did not teach them to deputies.
The S.C. Criminal Justice Academy also does not teach trainees the technique, which blocks air flow at the neck, according to Director Jackie Swinter.
Trainees are taught a shoulder pin hold or restraint, which is defined as a stranglehold, in which an officer puts pressure on a person’s neck. The hold squeezes the side of their neck as an officer wraps his arms underneath a suspect’s shoulder and around the head, cutting off blood flow to the brain.
When done long enough, the hold can cause someone to pass out, Swinter said.
“We teach every officer the same thing. We’re not telling them where and when to use (the technique). It’s up to agency policy to direct,” said Swinter.
For the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office’s more than 200 deputies, chokeholds and strangleholds are only allowed when a deputy’s life or the life of another person is on the line.
The technique is at the top of the agency’s use of force continuum in the deadly force category, according to the rules. The continuum, a practice used by many police departments, is an ascending scale of actions a deputy should take to “accomplish lawful objectives.”
These include anything from the first continuum entry - “simple presence of a uniformed” deputy - to its eighth level, “taser stun weapons,” the document shows.
Chokeholds and strangleholds join the highest rung of Beaufort County’s use of force continuum, along with firing a service weapon.
Duty to intervene
All four officers involved in George Floyd’s arrest lost their jobs and face criminal charges, though only one officer, Derek Chauvin, actually knelt on Floyd’s neck.
The three other officers can be seen on video standing and watching as Floyd died in custody. That lack of action lead departments across the country to create “duty to intervene” policies, which codify that police officers should intervene to stop misconduct or report it if they witness or hear about it.
“All Deputy Sheriffs are directly accountable for their actions,” reads the new policy for the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.
“Deputies are required to intervene and challenge any law enforcement officer if they observe wrongful acts or excessive use of force by the law enforcement officer. All Deputy Sheriff’s shall report any witnessed instances of misconduct, wrongdoing, or use of excessive force by any Deputy Sheriff and/or any other law enforcement officer,” according to the new rule.
The rule simply puts into writing something deputies were already doing, according to Bromage.
The Bluffton Police Department added this policy last month as well.
According to Bromage, the Sheriff’s Office is always willing to make policy revisions when necessary.
“It’s under Sheriff P.J. Tanner’s leadership we’ve become a nationally accredited LE agency which implements best and smart practices in law enforcement,” said Bromage. “We continually listen to the needs of our community in the interest of providing the best LE services possible.”
“And we always strive to make improvements.”
This story was originally published July 9, 2020 at 3:49 PM.
