LA County Supervisors Demand All Local Police Agencies Adopt 8 Use-Of-Force Policies

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – Two Los Angeles County Supervisors have proposed that every police agency in the county implement eight use-of-force policies in the wake of George Floyd's death and the ensuing outcry over law enforcement procedures.

The motion, proposed by Supervisors Janice Hahn and Mark Ridley-Thomas Wednesday, would require the L.A. County Sheriff's Department and all 46 local police departments to include all eight of the policies. The most notable include banning the use of chokeholds and strangeholds.

The eight policies are:

• Requiring officers to intervene to stop another officer from using excessive force
• Restricting, or prohibiting, the use of chokeholds, strangleholds, and carotid restraints.
• Requiring officers to de-escalate situations, when possible, before using force.
• Using a Force Continuum or Matrix that defines and limits the types of force that can be used to respond to specific types of resistance.
• Requiring officers to give a verbal warning before using deadly force.
• Prohibiting officers from shooting at people in moving vehicles unless the person poses a deadly threat by means other than the vehicle.
• Requiring officers to exhaust all other reasonable alternatives before resorting to using deadly force.
• Requiring comprehensive reporting that includes both uses of force and threats of force.

The eight policies were originally put together by Campaign Zero, a nationwide initiative focused on making statistics on police violence more transparent and available and using the data to curb that violence.

Not a single agency in L.A. County includes all eight of these policies. The motion notes that while LASD does not train deputies to use chokeholds and strangleholds, they are not banned by the department.

Police agencies across the region are facing pressure to institute changes following Floyd's death last week. On Wednesday, Mayor Eric Garcetti confirmed that the city would not be increasing the Los Angeles Police Department's budget for the upcoming 2020-21 fiscal year as had originally been proposed. Instead, that money will be part of $250 million that will be redirected to black communities to address health and education issues.

The LAPD Board of Police Commissioners also announced that the commission would put a moratorium on the LAPD entering names into the CalGang database, the statewide system that tracks people who may be affiliated with gangs.

LAPD Commission President Eileen Decker further said the agency will use an independent prosecutor from outside the L.A. County District Attorney's Office to handle disciplinary matters pertaining to officers.