Pittsburgh Council proposes ban on use of chokeholds by police

Pittsburgh City Council plans to introduce legislation today that would ban police officers from using chokeholds and neck restraints on suspects.

The Pittsburgh Police Bureau Policy Manual now bans such restraints except when an officer’s life is threatened: “PBP personnel are not authorized to use neck restraints or similar control techniques which have the potential for serious injury unless involved in a deadly force encounter.”

Councilmen R. Daniel Lavelle, who heads the Public Safety Committee, and Ricky Burgess have sponsored a bill that would ban those types of restraints in all situations. Burgess referred questions to Lavelle, who could not immediately be reached for comment.

The legislation cites the deaths of Eric Garner and George Floyd, both of whom died in other states while in police custody after officers applied chokeholds. It also cites “longstanding generational pain and trauma” in Black communities “as a result of systemic and institutional racism and long-standing problems in policing …”

“As the high profile cases of Eric Garner and George Floyd at the hands of police officers have shown, the chokehold technique has the dangerous potential to go wrong and can lead to the death of individuals held in custody,” it says.

Public Safety spokeswoman Cara Cruz said police policy prohibits chokeholds, as did Robert Swartzwelder, president of Fraternal Order of Police Fort Pitt Lodge 1.

Swartzwelder said police Chief Scott Schubert would, at a minimum, fire an officer for violating the policy or prosecute the officer if the suspect was injured or died. He noted police are permitted to shoot a suspect in deadly force situations.

“The problem with that legislation is that if an officer cannot get to their firearm, because that is what they would typically use in a deadly force situation, the legislation is saying the officer should die or face the loss of their job in that type of situation,” he said.