San Diego police to stop using blood-stopping neck restraint in wake of George Floyd’s killing

San Diego Police officers (L) in riot gear and a special tactics group (R) face-off with demonstrators in downtown San Diego, California on May 31, 2020, as people gather to protest against the death of Minneapolis man George Floyd. - Numerous cities across the US saw another day of violent protests after Floyd, an African-American, died on May 25 after being handcuffed and as a white police officer, who has since been charged with murder, knelt on his neck. (ARIANA DREHSLER/AFP via Getty Images)

One of the country’s largest police forces, spurred by the nationwide protests over George Floyd’s in-custody death, will immediately stop using a blood-stopping neck restraint that critics say has disproportionately targeted black people.

The San Diego Police Department announced this week it would no longer use the carotid restraint, a method of rendering a person unconscious by applying pressure to the sides of the neck where the carotid arteries are located, which almost immediately breaks blood flow.

The technique, also known as a sleeper hold, is similar to the knee-to-neck restraint used against Floyd in Minneapolis last week. The unarmed black man, who was suspected of passing a counterfeit bill, died after now-former officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into his neck for nearly nine minutes, a horrific scene that was caught on video and has prompted nationwide outrage.

“We are watching the hurt and pain so many people are expressing after the tragic death of George Floyd, and are committed to taking new actions to make sure something like this doesn’t happen in San Diego,” Mayor Kevin Faulconer said in a news conference Monday.

"That starts today with the police chief’s decision to immediately stop this particular restraint that has led to so much concern and frustration by many in our minority communities.”

City Council President Georgette Gomez called the technique “deadly” and “unnecessary.”

San Diego, the country’s eighth largest city, could be the first of many to reevaluate police techniques that can result in death as protesters take to the streets to demand an end to police brutality and systemic racism.

Police records show the carotid restraint has been used hundreds of times in the past five years, and activists claim it is disproportionately used against minorities.

Another similar and deadly tactic that has come into scrutiny in recent years is the chokehold. It was illegally used against Eric Garner in 2014 while the unarmed New Yorker repeatedly cried out, “I can’t breathe” — the same words used by Floyd in his final moments last week.