LAS VEGAS (AP) — Las Vegas police officers can no longer routinely use neck restraints to render combative people unconscious, but can still use the department-approved technique in a life-or-death struggle.
A change announced Thursday in the department's use-of-force policy aims to reduce the number of times officers use an arm-around-the-neck method the department calls "lateral vascular neck restraint."
It comes almost four months after the death of a 40-year-old man who was chased by an officer out of a Las Vegas Strip casino and subdued with a stun gun and a chokehold that department officials say was not approved.
The 31-year-old officer in that case was suspended and has become the first in the department in 27 years to be charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of a person he was trying to arrest.west
