NCJ Number
138398
Journal
Law Enforcement Quarterly Dated: (August-October 1992) Pages: 15- 18,35
Date Published
1992
Length
5 pages
Annotation
A task force that analyzed seven cases of deaths of suspects in police custody in San Diego, California, between 1989 and early 1992 developed recommendations that led to substantive change in the way the San Diego Police Department restrains and transports people acting in a bizarre, violent fashion.
Abstract
The task force learned that no method exists to prevent all deaths in custody, but changes in restraint procedures can prevent some deaths. The 26 task force members included police officers and supervisors, physicians, paramedics, a community representative, the medical examiner, and the director of the police agency's psychological services unit. The task force gathered information through surveys of 142 other police agencies and 715 San Diego police officers, as well as analyses of the 7 deaths. It recommended nine changes, including retaining the carotid restraint as a method of rendering an assaultive person unconscious, removing the weight of several officers as soon as a suspect is controlled, and banning the practice of transporting a person in a "hog-tied" and prone position in a police vehicle. Other recommendations were to take suspects showing symptoms of cocaine psychosis or drug-induced syndromes to medical facilities, developing specific guidelines for transporting maximally restrained persons, improved training in the use of force and self-defense, the purchase of special restraint seats, and reporting the force used in arrest and misdemeanor reports. Photographs