Officers used neck restraints on 428 people since 2012, and 14% lost consciousness, the data showed. That means the procedure, which is restricted or banned in many large police departments around the country, was used an average of about once a week in the city over that time period.
The most common incident that preceded someone being placed in a neck restraint was a report of a “suspicious person,” which accounted for 83 of the 428 cases.
And the most common type of “resistance” by a subject that led to officers placing them in a neck restraint was that they “tensed” – the description used for 162 of the cases. Those explanations come from officers’ own reports about the incidents.
Nearly half of people who lost consciousness in neck restraints were injured, according to the data. The reports don’t specify how serious those injuries are.
