Santa Cruz, Watsonville police departments ban use of Carotid Neck Restraint

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KION) In an effort to reform policing locally, the Watsonville Police Department and Chief Andrew Mills with the Santa Cruz Police Department are banning a type of hold.

Mills said the departments are banning the use of the Carotid Neck Restraint effective immediately. He said it is a high-risk control hold that is risky for people susceptible to excited delirium.

Both the San Diego Police Department and the San Diego County Sheriff's office said they are banning the restraint immediately as well.

According to a California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training workbook, a control hold is a way of physically controlling a person by applying pressure to a part of the body until the officer has control over the person.

It said a Carotid Restraint Control Hold involves an officer applying continued pressure to the carotid arteries on both sides of the neck without affecting the throat's respiratory structures.

The hold was not the one police used to restrain George Floyd before his death.