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Pittsburgh City Council to consider ban on chokeholds, neck restraints

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh City Council plans to introduce legislation Tuesday that would prohibit officers from using chokeholds.

The recent death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in police custody highlights the need for this ban, according to the city council, adding that the technique has the “dangerous potential to go wrong.”

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Pittsburgh police do not authorize chokeholds unless an officer’s life is threatened. Their policy states that officers 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.”

In those encounters, Pittsburgh police are permitted to shoot a suspect.The president of the police union told our news partners at TribLIVE, that this legislation poses a big problem saying, “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.”