SALT LAKE CITY — Utah lawmakers took a step Tuesday toward banning police from using a “knee on the neck” restraint like the one a Minneapolis officer used in the death of George Floyd.
Kneeling on someone’s neck to constrict their airway is inhumane, Rep. Sandra Hollins, D-Salt Lake City, said during a committee discussion of a bill prohibiting the practice. Hollins, the only black member of the Utah Legislature, said she sat horrified watching a video recording of Floyd die.
“My goal in the end is to protect the public, to have our communities of color feel safe when they call the police and to protect our police. There is no way that the police in Minnesota should have been put into that predicament to be able to use that restraint. They shouldn’t have been placed in that position at all,” she said.
The legislation would also prohibit peace officer training that includes the use of chokeholds or other restraints that may cause unconsciousness. It further would ban training in the use of carotid restraints or other methods of restraint that may impede breathing or blood circulation and cause unconsciousness.
While Utah’s Peace Officers Standards and Training does not teach those restraints, some police agencies in the state do.
An officer using knee pressure on someone’s neck or throat could be charged with aggravated assault, according to the legislation.
The Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Interim Committee unanimously endorsed the bill Tuesday. The full Legislature is scheduled to consider it in a special session Thursday.
The proposal comes in light of growing calls for police reform in the wake of video showing former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, using his knee to pin down the neck of Floyd, who was black and handcuffed, for nearly nine minutes as Floyd pleaded for air and eventually stopped moving.
“I don’t know that I’ll ever not have that picture ingrained in my mind of the officer kneeling on Mr. Floyd’s neck,” said Senate Majority Leader Evan Vickers, R-Cedar City.
Vickers said lawmakers, including GOP legislative leaders, want to send a clear message that they are listening to calls for reform, and that they care about people regardless of political party or race.
“We felt really comfortable this would send that message,” he said.
Sen. Daniel Thatcher, R-West Valley City, said the bill doesn’t go far enough because it doesn’t specifically ban chokeholds, only the training of police on how to use the restraint.
He called prohibiting kneeling on the neck or throat is “not even low-hanging fruit. That’s fruit that is literally sitting on the ground. There is nowhere where I think you will find someone defending that behavior. It’s psychotic and should never be done.”
But he said he doesn’t see why lawmakers would ban training on chokeholds but not ban the practice.
“I’m concerned this doesn’t go nearly as far as it could,” Thatcher said.
Hollins said the bill is just the beginning of the conversation.
“It may be fruit that’s sitting on the ground for you, but it’s very important legislation for the communities that I serve, for people who have reached out to me, for my community for the black community,” she said. “It is not low-hanging fruit. It’s fruit that’s going to make a difference in our community and going to make then feel safe enough that they know if they call police the practice will not be implemented. Does it go far enough? Absolutely not.”
Utah Gov. Gary Herbert last week called for changes in the way police conduct business in the state.
Effective immediately, Herbert said, no state law enforcement officers — including the Utah Department of Public Safety and the Utah Department of Corrections — will be permitted to use chokeholds or restraints that pressure the neck or spine.
Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown also revised his department’s policy on some use-of-force methods.
Salt Lake police officers are now explicitly forbidden from using chokeholds or tear gas as a form of crowd control, and new guidelines are in place for using less lethal rounds.
Police departments across the nation have announced they are banning chokeholds and other similar police tactics that are coming under scrutiny from state and local governments.