John Locher / AP
Sgt. Esmeralda Boveda of Metro Police speaks during a news conference Thursday, Sept. 21, 2017, in Las Vegas.
Published Thursday, Sept. 21, 2017 | 11:58 a.m.
Updated Thursday, Sept. 21, 2017 | 4:30 p.m.
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 deploying a new weapon to de-escalate violent situations, officials said. Changes in the department’s use of force policy went into effect on Friday.
Metro regularly updates its policies for various reasons, such as inconsistencies, the results of incident reviews or developments in policing, Sgt. Esmeralda Boveda said today.
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 an unarmed man died in May after a Metro officer placed him in a neck restraint.
The officer, Kenneth Lopera, 31, was charged with manslaughter in the death of Tashii S. Brown, whom the Clark County Coroner’s Office said died of asphyxiation. Other significant factors in his death were methamphetamine intoxication and an enlarged heart, the coroner said.
Brown’s death, as well as several other critical incident reviews that weren’t publicly discussed, led to the change in policy, Boveda said. The use of the neck restraint has been part of an ongoing discussion within Metro for a “very long time,” she said.
Feedback from officers on the “clarification” of the neck restraint policy were positive, Boveda said.
Brown’s death spawned protests and calls for Las Vegas police to quit teaching officers the lateral vascular neck restraint.
Steve Grammas of the Las Vegas Police Protective Association has said Lopera did nothing criminal and was using a department-approved method to restrain Brown.
Metro has said the technique Lopera used was similar to the one officers are trained to perform but not allowed under department policy.
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, Boveda said.
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.”
In addition, after finding that low-lethality beanbag rounds have been ineffective in some situations, Metro has deployed a new 40mm specialty impact weapon. It is an “intermediate force option” when fired from five yards or more and a deadly force weapon when discharged at closer range, officials said.
The weapons were previously in use at the Clark County Detention Center, but they will now be available to patrol officers — one in each area command — once they are trained to use it, officials said.
