Councilmembers Larry Carr and Angelique Ashby are proposing a change in Sacramento Police’s use of force policies. The changes include banning the carotid chokehold for the Sacramento police, banning no-knock raids, and having continuing training for officers. The full list of proposed changes can be found here.
Though the Sacramento Police Department suspended the use of the controversial choke hold earlier this month, Carr wants to make it permanent.
“Even though the police chief may be banning the carotid chokehold, unless council makes it policy, any police chief can come along and change it, so this becomes city policy,” he said.
Carr noted that local law enforcement in California does not typically utilize no-knock raids — there is no record of that method of arrest being used in Sacramento — but that he and Ashby wanted to make it part of the city’s policy regardless.
“It’s rare in the city, we’re going to make it impossible,” he said.
He added, however, that he did not see City Council voting to defund the police anytime soon, as many involved in demonstrations against police brutality have asked.
“If it means we are disbanding our police force and sending everyone home, I think that’s going to be a heavy lift in the city of Sacramento,” he said.
Both Carr and Ashby acknowledged that this policy change was just part of a larger picture of police reform the city was working on. Two weeks ago, Mayor Darrell Steinberg announced his own proposed reforms, which included the creation of a separate department to handle mental health and homelessness 911 calls, and a new Inspector General position to investigate police brutality incidents. City Council will vote to approve this proposal at its next meeting on Tuesday.
Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled the name of Sacramento City Councilmember Angelique Ashby. It has been updated.
