Charles Rabin and Caroline Ghisolfi
Miami Herald
MIAMI — Miami-Dade police, the largest law enforcement agency in the Southeastern United States, and one of only a very few in South Florida that continue to permit its officers to use a controversial neck restraint to subdue suspects, has banned the practice.
In a series of tweets Thursday morning, Police Director Alfredo “Freddy” Ramirez said he decided to do away with the policy after speaking with experts and community members, many of whom considered the practice dangerous and outdated. The change in policy is immediate.
“This decision was based on a multiple of factors to include officer and public safety, feedback from policing professionals, members of our community, local leaders and officials,” Ramirez said on Twitter. The director also said he chose to change the policy after speaking with members of the Police Executive Research Forum, a respected law enforcement think tank that recommends policy change and often reviews department practices.
The controversial technique — which is also often referred to as a chokehold — involves placing the crook of the elbow below the suspect’s chin and applying pressure for about 10 seconds. The decision from Miami-Dade comes on the heels of a national outcry about police use-of-force policies in the wake of George Floyd’s Memorial Day death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.
The move was quickly hailed by police reform advocates.
“I’m stunned,” said Democratic Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, a civil rights advocate and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives since 2011, representing northern Miami-Dade and southern Broward. “It’s something that’s needed. I told him [Ramirez] I’m preparing him a proclamation.”
The only other law enforcement agency in Miami-Dade that continues to use the neck restraint is Hialeah. The department and city have not responded to calls from the Herald for comment. Other police departments like Miami and the Broward Sheriff’s Office allow it only when lethal force is required because someone’s life is in danger.
Thursday evening at Hard Rock Stadium, Ramirez broke the news about the chokehold policy ban to a group of 100 students between the ages of nine and 19 at the 5000 Role Models of Excellence 27th Annual Police & Youth Conference, which Wilson founded in the 1990s to improve relations between black youth and law enforcement.
The students all wore black masks saying 5000 Role Models of Excellence, white shirts and red ties. Seated around them were 200 police officers and several police chiefs from Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
“What we saw the other day in Minneapolis is not ... proper police. It’s not leadership. It’s not humanity,” the county’s police director said. “I don’t want to ever hear or see again, ‘I can’t breathe.’ So me, the director of the Miami-Dade Police Department, promise you that there will never be a chokehold application again in Miami-Dade County. Ever.”
Seated spread out on the grass infield of the cavernous football stadium with officers between each student, the stands almost completely empty, the clapping and cheering at the announcement almost seemed muted.
Neck restraints have been a major concern of police reform advocates since the world watched Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin press his knee into Floyd’s neck on May 25 while the man was handcuffed and on the ground for almost nine minutes, killing him as he begged for his life, wheezing,“I can’t breathe.” Three other Minneapolis officers looked on but did nothing to stop Chauvin as onlookers screamed at them to release him.
Chauvin was charged with second-degree murder, second-degree manslaughter and third-degree murder. The other officers are also facing charges related to Floyd’s death. All have been fired.
The video has sparked a worldwide backlash of mostly peaceful protests.
Since then, several cities including San Diego and Minneapolis have changed their policy. The carotid triangle restraint, as law enforcement refers to it, was also used by the New York City cop who killed Eric Garner in 2014 as he sold single cigarettes on the street. Garner’s death and others around that time led to a series of violent protests around the nation focused on what was considered excessive force by police.
Critics contend that the chokehold is far too often deadly.
California largely banned it in the early 1980s after several black men were killed when police used neck restraints.
And one of Miami’s most infamous police-involved killings happened in the early 1990s, when an officer used the method to subdue a man who was already being held down by two other officers. Antonio Edwards, 24 at the time, became comatose and later died. Miami commissioners eventually awarded his family what was at the time the largest monetary police settlement in U.S. history.