Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office bans use of carotid hold in wake of George Floyd protests

The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office has ordered deputies to stop using the carotid hold, joining other law enforcement agencies across California that have eliminated the controversial neck restraint amid nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd.

The ban was temporarily adopted Friday and made permanent Saturday, one day after Gov. Gavin Newsom directed the state's police training program to stop instructing officers on how to use the restraint and urged law enforcement agencies to prohibit officers from using the hold, Sonoma County sheriff's Sgt. Juan Valencia said.

Newsom called for an end to the carotid hold amid statewide protests over the May 25 death of Floyd, a black man killed by a white Minneapolis police officer who knelt on Floyd's neck for more than 8 minutes while taking him into custody. While the neck restraint employed by the officer was not a carotid hold, cellphone video of the arrest has triggered daily protests in Sonoma County against policy brutality and racism over the past 10 days.

To perform the carotid hold, officers must use their arm to apply pressure to the sides of a person's neck, a technique that blocks the flow of blood through the carotid arteries and can render someone unconscious.

Critics of the technique argue the holds are difficult to perform correctly and can lead to injury or death when applied improperly.

“If the governor is saying he's not funding training for the carotid, there's basically no other option,” Valencia said of the ban. “If we can't train on that technique, we're not going to use it.”

The carotid hold came under public scrutiny in Sonoma County late last year, when a Bloomfield man died Nov. 27 after a sheriff's deputy attempted the neck restraint on him in the aftermath of a predawn car chase in west Sonoma County.

Deputies attempted to pull over the man, David Ward, 52, after spotting him driving a car that he had reported stolen by an armed man. Two deputies and two Sebastopol police officers at the scene did not know Ward was the rightful owner of the Honda Civic and had retrieved it sometime overnight, authorities said.

One of the deputies, Charles Blount, wrapped his arm around Ward in what appeared to be an attempted carotid hold. Ward lost consciousness and was pronounced dead at Petaluma Valley Hospital later that morning.

Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick declined to eliminate the carotid hold last year following Ward's death. The county's law enforcement auditor, Karlene Navarro, asked Essick to institute a temporary ban on the carotid hold, but Essick expressed concerns that removing the restraint would lead his deputies to use other methods that might be more dangerous or cause more injuries.

The county's Community Advisory Council, the community arm of Navarro's office, recommended a ban on the carotid hold in December in a series of use-of-force recommendations forwarded to the Sheriff's Office, which declined to adopt the proposal.

The Marin County Coroner's Office ruled Ward's death a homicide last month, finding that he was killed by a physical confrontation with law enforcement, cardiorespiratory collapse, blunt-impact injuries, neck restraint and the use of a Taser.

Valencia could not say whether Ward's death or recent protests over the killing of Floyd contributed to Essick banning the neck restraint. Essick was not available for comment Monday afternoon on his decision to ban the restraint, Valencia said.

Navarro said she learned of the ban on Monday during a call with a Sonoma County Sheriff's Office captain who works as a liaison to her office. She posted the information onto her office's Facebook page and in a public email sent out just past 5 p.m.

“I think it's a really positive step in the right direction,” Navarro said. “First and foremost, it shows that our Sheriff's Office is willing to listen and is open to change.”

Valencia said the Sheriff's Office had notified deputies internally about the ban but had not publicly shared the information as of Monday afternoon. The new policy banning the carotid hold will be posted online Tuesday, Valencia said.

Since 2017, Sonoma County deputies used the carotid hold in only two other incidents prior to Ward's death, according to Sheriff's Office data previously provided to The Press Democrat. One of the prior uses resulted in an injury to the involved subject, the data showed.

More than a dozen law enforcement agencies in California, including the San Diego police and the sheriff's department, have announced that they would stop officers from using the restraint, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood, endorsed legislation Monday that would make it illegal to use carotid holds and chokeholds to forcibly detain a suspect.

“We ... have to change a culture of excessive force that seems to exist among some members of law enforcement,” Rendon said at a news conference. “This bill will end one brutal method that police use for restraining people.”

Colorado and Illinois allow use of the hold only if police deem lethal force to be justified, said Amber Widgery, a criminal justice analyst with the National Conference of State Legislatures, while Tennessee allows its use if other means of restraint have been ineffective. Washington, D.C., bans a similar trachea hold but permits the carotid hold under circumstances where lethal force is allowed.

Other states use more general legal language, she said. It is unclear whether California's proposal will allow any exceptions because the author of the legislation, Assemblyman Mike Gipson, D-Carson, did not release the actual language of his bill.

“These methods and techniques are supposed to save lives, but they don't - they take lives,” Gipson said.

On Friday, Newsom said he would sign Gipson's bill if it is approved by the Legislature.

The Associated Press contributed to this story. You can reach Staff Writer Nashelly Chavez at 707-521-5203 or nashelly.chavez@pressdemocrat.com.