A critical factor for jurors to consider is whether Derek Chauvin violated the police department’s policy on neck restraints when he knelt on Floyd’s neck.
The Minneapolis Police Department banned all forms of neck restraints and chokeholds weeks after Floyd’s death, but at the time of his May 25 arrest by Chauvin and other officers, certain neck restraints were permitted — provided certain guidelines and conditions were followed.
The department policy, in place for at least eight years at the time, divided permissible neck restraints into two categories, according to court filings and testimony.
Neck restraints were defined in the policy as a “non-deadly force option.”
One, called a “conscious neck restraint,” was for light pressure applied to the neck to help control a person without rendering unconsciousness. It was permitted for a person actively resisting.
The other was an “unconscious neck restraint,” in which officers could use their arms or legs to knock out a person by pressing carotid arteries on either side of the neck, blocking blood flow to the brain.
The policy called for it to be used only for a person “exhibiting active aggression” or actively resisting when lesser attempts to control the person had failed or were likely to fail.
Police guidelines also instructed officers, at the first possible opportunity, to turn people on their sides once they were handcuffed and under control to avoid “positional asphyxia,” in which breathing becomes labored in a prone position and can lead to death.
The city had pledged to emphasize to officers the dangers of positional asphyxia as part of a $3 million settlement in the 2010 death of David Smith. Minneapolis officers subdued Smith with a Taser and pinned him face down on the floor for several minutes with their knees on his back.
Training manuals also instructed officers to be attentive to whether a suspect was having difficulty breathing. Chauvin and the other officers never turned Floyd on his side, even as he said he couldn’t breathe 27 times before his body went limp.