Ohio Agencies Must Classify Chokeholds as Deadly Force to be Certified by State

An Ohio state panel has put into place new guidelines for how and when law-enforcement agencies should use deadly force (including chokeholds) and handle mass protests.

The guidelines aren’t mandatory, though they’ll now be part of a series of standards Ohio law-enforcement agencies must abide by to become voluntarily certified by the state, Cleveland.com reports.

Under  one of the new standards , adopted late last week by Gov. Mike DeWine’s Ohio Collaborative Community-Police Advisory Board, law-enforcement officials may only use deadly force – including, specifically, chokeholds or vascular neck restraints – to defend themselves or others from serious injury or death.

The advisory board’s  second standard  requires law enforcement agencies involved with responding to mass demonstrations to put into place written policies on 12 different issues, including training, crowd management and control techniques, and deployment of use of force, weapons, and tactics.