© 2024
Virginia's Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Effort Banning Police Use of Chokeholds Fails in Richmond

Lawmakers in Richmond may be close to wrapping up their special session. And, they’re coming to a resolution on the issue of chokeholds.

The effort to ban law enforcement officers from using chokeholds has failed in Virginia, where police officers and sheriff’s deputies will still be allowed to use the maneuver.

Senator Scott Surovell is a Democrat from Fairfax County. He helped broker the deal with interest groups representing law enforcement. 

“By putting in a separate provision of the code that a law-enforcement officer is not allowed to apply a chokehold unless they’re defending their own life or the life of another person," he says. "That makes the use of a chokehold in other situations unlawful, which means the strangulation statute can now be used to prosecute a law enforcement officer if they improperly use a chokehold.”

Delegate Jennifer Carroll Foy is a Democrat from Woodbridge, and she introduced a bill that would have created a separate felony offense for law enforcement officials who use chokeholds. 

“So they’ll make it a felony offense for an officer who has sex with a person who may be in their custody, but not when an officer performs a chokehold on an individual," Foy explains. "So that’s kind of where we are unfortunately.”

The effort to ban chokeholds may have been defeated, but Democrats in the House and Senate approved separate measures to limit no-knock warrants, create new civilian oversight of police departments, crack down on excessive use of force and require officers to intervene if they see their colleagues engaged in wrongdoing.

This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.

Michael Pope is an author and journalist who lives in Old Town Alexandria.