New Policy Restricts Las Vegas Officers’ Use of Neck Restraints

Las Vegas Metro Police announced today they are further limiting the use of a neck restraint that has proven deadly for it and other law enforcement agencies in the past.

Metro also changed its policy on shooting at or from a moving vehicle and is supplying a new 40mm less-lethal weapon to patrol officers. Changes in the department’s use of force policy went into effect on Friday.

As part of the most recent update, the lateral vascular neck restraint is no longer being categorized as a “low-level option” and is now classified as an “intermediate or deadly use of force,” officials said.

To use the restraint, an officer must be able to demonstrate that the subject had the intent to harm officers or others, officials said.

The use of neck holds came under scrutiny this year when a subject died in May after a Metro officer placed him in a neck restraint, the Las Vegas Sun reports.

The change in Metro policy regarding shooting at moving vehicles was partially prompted as the result of terrorist attacks around the world in which attackers have used vehicles to ram pedestrians. Metro says it is now department policy that “officers will not discharge a firearm at/from a moving vehicle unless it is absolutely necessary to preserve human life.”