STUART, Fla. — Officers with the Stuart Police Department will no longer resort to using chokeholds, for now.
Stuart Police Chief Joseph Tumminelli announced last week that he has placed a temporary ban on the restraint and is considering eliminating it altogether.
The move comes amid fallout from the death of George Floyd, the unarmed man who was killed while in police custody in Minneapolis.
The change also comes on the heels of the new social media campaign #8CantWait, a list of eight policies geared toward reducing police violence.
The new push was created by the nonprofit organization Campaign Zero.
- Banning the use of chokeholds and all other neck restraints.
- Requiring officers to de-escalate situations, where possible, by communicating with subjects, maintaining distance and eliminating the need to use force.
- Requiring officers to give a verbal warning in all situations before using deadly force.
- Requiring officers to exhaust all other alternatives, including non-force and less lethal force options, prior to resorting to deadly force.
- Requiring officers to intervene and stop excessive force used by other officers and report these incidents immediately to a supervisor.
- Banning officers from shooting at moving vehicles.
- Restricting the most severe types of force to the most extreme situations and creating clear policy restrictions on the use of each police weapon and tactic.
- Requiring officers to report each time they use force or threaten to use force against civilians, including requiring officers to report whenever they point a firearm at someone.