*NOTE: This section includes amendments by temporary legistation that will expire on March 25, 2023. To view the text of this section after the expiration of all emergency and temporary legislation affecting this section, click this link: Permanent Version.*
The Council of the District of Columbia finds and declares that law enforcement and special police officer use of neck restraints constitutes the use of lethal and excessive force. This force presents an unnecessary danger to the public. On May 25, 2020, Minneapolis Police Department officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd by applying a neck restraint to Floyd with his knee for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people in cities and states across the world, including in the District, have taken to the streets to peacefully protest injustice, racism, and police brutality against Black people and other people of color. Police brutality is abhorrent and does not reflect the District's values. It is the intent of the Council in the enactment of this subchapter to unequivocally ban the use of neck restraints by law enforcement and special police officers.
