The RCMP says it will continue to instruct its officers to use the controversial carotid artery control technique in rare cases, despite federal government directives to ban the use of neck restraints under all circumstances.
A carotid control arrest involves squeezing the arteries on either side of a person’s neck, causing the person being arrested to become unconscious.
When used properly, the restraint does not restrict breathing, but its use has come under increased scrutiny following the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis in 2020.
In his proxy letter to RCMP Commissioner Brenda Luckey last year, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino asked her to ban “the use of neck restraints under any circumstances and the use of tear gas or rubber bullets for crowd control.”
An RCMP spokesperson told CBC News on Wednesday that the national police force “has not banned or imposed a moratorium on the use of the carotid control technique.”
Instead, Robin Percival said the RCMP issued new guidance to its officers late last year that “strengthens and clarifies definitions, oversight and accountability measures, the risks of using the technique on medically high-risk groups, the requirements for medical care, threshold for use and requirement for annual recertification on application policy.”
Alexander Cohen, a spokesman for Mendicino, said the minister had given Lucky “clear instructions”.
“Our expectation is that the commissioner remains committed to implementing these reforms, that the RCMP strives to establish the gold standard when it comes to the use of force, and that it moves forward with the reforms necessary to maintain the trust of all Canadians,” he said.
“In early 2023, we are reaching out to the RCMP and all of our portfolio agencies to get updates on very important items in their mandate letters.”
RCMP Const. Elizabeth Flemister demonstrates the carotid artery control technique in a video for the National Police Federation. (National Police Federation/YouTube)
The RCMP Act says the commissioner serves “under the authority of the minister” and “has control and management of the force.”
The RCMP defended carotid arrest as safe, effective and rare. She said her policy limits the use of the technique to situations where an officer fears serious bodily injury or death to himself or others.
The force said the carotid artery control technique was used 25 times in 2020 and 14 times in 2021 by its members.
According to documents obtained through an access to information request last year, between 2017 and 2021, the RCMP recorded six cases where someone had to be taken to hospital after applying a carotid arrest – three in 2018, one in 2019 and two in 2020.
Percival said the RCMP’s new policy on carotid restraints includes a section that says if the subject is not compliant after 20 seconds, the officer must end the restraint. Mounties are now expected to request a medical health evaluation as soon as possible after applying the carotid control technique.
Recent study calls bans ‘counterproductive’
The RCMP pointed to a recent study in which she participated examined neck vascular restrictors. The review, published last fall in the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine, examined its use by three police forces and found the technique to be effective more than 90 percent of the time.
The report found that there were no deaths or significant injuries associated with vascular neck restraints after 944 field uses. The RCMP accounted for a third of the cases used in the study.
The researchers also note that minor injuries are rare and include soreness in the neck and shoulders, sprains or strains, swelling, dizziness or headache. The report identified one case of hemotympanum, the presence of blood in the middle ear.
The study’s authors wrote that calls for no restraints may be “unnecessary when the cervical restraint technique is performed by well-trained law enforcement officers.”
“Furthermore, banning a safe and effective force option may be counterproductive by forcing law enforcement officers to use other force options with a higher risk of injury,” the study said.
A carotid technique different from the arrest used in Floyd’s death
The RCMP first announced it would review carotid restraints, sometimes known as “sleeper restraints” or “blood chokes,” in response to massive international protests against police brutality following Floyd’s death.
The carotid arrest differs from the technique used by Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes. After Floyd’s death, some law enforcement agencies in the US announced a ban on the use of carotid neck restraints.
A young boy holds a poster of George Floyd while sitting on a man’s shoulders after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison for the May 2020 killing of Floyd on June 25, 2021, in Minneapolis. (Jim Mone/Associated Press)
The RCMP said that while it does not teach its officers to put a knee to a suspect’s neck or condone them doing so, it believes it is acceptable to use a knee in certain cases.
“There are instances in RCMP police defensive tactics training where it is appropriate for a police officer to use their knee and place it on the upper body of a citizen during an arrest,” says an explainer on his website.
“However, there is specific training and instructions that direct officers not to use their knee on the suspect’s neck.”
The happy restraint of the Union sticks around
The head of a union representing more than 20,000 RCMP officers applauded Lucky’s decision to keep the carotid arrest.
“Our members are actually very good, like really good, at de-escalating situations because 99.99 percent of our interactions with the public do not result in the use of force,” said Brian Sauve, president of the National Police Federation.
“In the heat of the moment, do we have accidental discharges of firearms? Yes. Do we have random firings of conductive energy weapons? Yes. Can a carotid artery control technique go sideways and end up not being applied correctly? Yes. Again you “We’re talking about a scenario where you’re dealing with someone in the realm of death or grievous bodily harm.”
Sauve said he believes Luckey acted within his authority to keep carotid arrest as an option for officers.
“There was a lot of talk last year, for example, about the operational independence of the RCMP. The use of force, the Incident Management Intervention Model, in my opinion, would fall within that operational independence,” Sauve said, referring to the options police are taught to use in different scenarios.
“I think the science and the evidence all point to the carotid artery control technique being a valuable option for using force, [a] a less lethal intervention option for our members.”
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