The Role of Chokes in Law Enforcement and Private Security

The Role of Chokes in Law Enforcement and Private Security

By: Mark “Six” James CPO, EPS, CAS

In the US, several high profile police cases like the death of Eric Garner, Elijah McClain, and most recently, the horrific death of George Floyd were due to, or partially attributed to, chokes.

three basic ways of choking or strangling an opponent, as well as combinations of all three:

1. Compression of the windpipe (trachea) stopping or reducing the flow of air to the lungs.

2. Compression of the carotid arteries on one or both sides of the neck restricting the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain.

3. Compression of the chest and lungs preventing the opponent from inhaling (often used during pinning techniques).

Trachea (Air) Choke

In an air or trachea choke, the inside of the forearm rests against the trachea, and pressure is applied inward. While the technique may cause a lot of pain, it often does not incapacitate an adversary quickly, and because of the force required, it often leads to injury. I am not a fan of the utilization of trachea chokes unless an officer (or agent) is in a deadly force situation, which indicates the potential for severe bodily harm or death to the officer. In that instance, the officer should be able to use the required force up and including lethal if required. Whether that force comes from a firearm, a vehicle, or a choke.

Compression of the Chest

One of the things officers must remain aware of, particularly when involved in group engagement to subdue a suspect, is the potential for the suspect to lose consciousness from inadvertently compressing the chest, restricting the suspect from inhaling. This is most likely to occur when trying to handcuff a non-compliant or violent suspect when multiple officers try to restrain or pin the suspect.

Challenges

With any tool or technique, the technique is only as effective as an officer’s initial training and ongoing reinforcement. It does not make any difference if the method is a driving technique, a firearm technique, or a combative one. As a firearms and combative instructor, I have trained many law enforcement officers, security officers, and bodyguards. When it comes to unarmed combatants, most are not very efficient or practical when dealing with a lack of compliance and particularly combativeness when it comes to many less than lethal options.

Even long before we get into applying combative skills, it's essential to ask what de-escalation training do the officers or bodyguards actually have? How much recognition of pre-incident indicator training do the officers have? Being able to recognize imminent violence may put them in a more dynamic defensive position to help them prevail in the event the investigation deteriorates.

Rarely is there enough time spent in the academy on defensive tactics to move a technique from concept to competency. Remember, training exposes a person to ideas, but only proper practice builds skills. An officer or bodyguard that carries a firearm they only shoot once a year when it is time to qualify will never be able to call upon that technique or tool ondemand and anticipate success. So why would we expect different when it comes to either chokes or neck restraints? If departments or individual officers are unwilling to commit to training to build competency, then a call for the banning of certain techniques, including most chokes, is an absolute necessity.

False View of Real World Combat

Contrary to popular belief, regardless of whether that belief is held by the public or municipal leaders, no one just gives you a joint manipulation, lock or hold out of thin air and in isolation. Noncompliance, aggressiveness, or combativeness and the required law enforcement response will rarely be YouTube friendly. Real fights are ugly, awkward, and often have an element of ebb and flow, where control is gained, lost, and regained multiple times again before a suspect is subdued.

So we must face the facts and realize that fighting for physical control is inherently aggressive by its very nature. In doing so, we need to cleanse our mind and move past our false sanitized view of reality that in these encounters, everything will go perfect like in the dojo or combatives room at the police academy. There is no such thing as clean combat in the real world. As we often say in the martial arts, you have to shock to lock. This usually requires a setup move or some other type of distraction technique (i.e., a finger whip to the groin, twist of the ear, etc.) aimed at changing the suspect’s focus before executing the appropriate compliance technique.

Proper Application

Rear Naked Choke / Vascular Neck Restraint (Sleeper Hold)

The rear-naked choke or the vascular neck restraint, as it is often referred to in law enforcement, is not choking at all. It is an occlusion/ restriction of the blood flow to the brain by impacting the carotid artery. The blood flow falls below a critical level when the carotid sensors tell the heart to reduce the flow rate, which makes the person lightheaded or lose consciousness.

It is actually a very humane technique for dealing with an aggressive or combatant adversary when effectively applied. It is size, strength, and gender-neutral. It is one of the first chokes taught in Judo or Ju-Jitsu because of its ability to quickly incapacitate an adversary (often in 6 – 8 seconds) and often without injury when executed correctly. The recovery time is 2 – 3 seconds after application, and the person regains consciousness again.

One of the most critical parts of teaching a choke or a vascular neck restraint is showing the person applying the technique to recognize the signs of either compliance or a loss consciousness and when to release the choke. Mixed Martial Arts practitioners consistently use chokes regularly against very skilled combatants without injury or loss of life. So, is the challenge really the technique, or is it the misapplication?

Depending on whether the confrontation starts on your feet or on the ground, the initial move may start from an over (the clavicle) and under (the armpit) move. The bottom hand grabs the meat of the hand or the wrist (approximately where you wear your watch). If your adversary wants to try and pull your arms down, it forces him to grab higher up on the forearm near the bicep, reducing their leverage.

At the appropriate time, your top hand grabs the back of the adversary’s shoulder. This provides an anchor and helps keep the adversary from pulling your arm down from around his neck.

The next part of the move, the bottom hand comes up behind the adversary's shoulder, and you join your hands together (palm to palm). Here we want to be careful to keep the front of the forearm down and resting against the adversary’s back. This becomes the new anchor to help secure the positioning.

The next part of the move the top hand slides right down the inside of the forearm the hand shoots up and directly behind the adversary's hand/ neck right below the curve of the skull and back of the neck (thumb up).

The adversary's nose and chin line up with the inside crease of the bend of the elbow. I like to take my right hand and grab my left bicep; my left hand often grabs my right shoulder. I squeeze and inhale and where the neck restraint can be used to protect an officer and the suspect. The officer finds himself in a struggle with a suspect when a knife falls to the ground. Rather than immediately breaking contact with the suspect and transitioning to his bring my elbows together, removing all the space between my arms and his carotid artery. For additional safety and to avoid the adversary trying to target my face or eyes, I may tuck my head behind the adversary’s back to protect my face.

Here is a perfect example firearm (a lethal tool), the officer instead positions himself behind the suspect and executes a vascular neck restraint. Approximately 8 – 10 seconds later, the officer renders the suspect unconscious and can handcuff him without further duress. Here we see where we could use a less than lethal option to subdue the suspect and avoid the deadly force outcome.

In closing, if officers have an accident in their vehicle, and police officers have accidents all the time, we do not call for a ban on patrol cars. Or if an officer misuses a firearm in an encounter, we do not call for banning all firearms. Instead, we enact a multitude of other measures. We provide better training, discipline the officer, or institute a protocol change to the department to bring about the desired result that reduces the likelihood of harm to any person involved.

So, before considering banning all chokes or neck restraints, we must increase our own education and knowledge of the application so that we can speak both intelligently and practically about the subject. This is a useful and effective non-lethal measure when used competently in the toolbox of law enforcement or private security. As a non-lethal force, we might fare better to increase competence in use and application and delivery of the technique rather than an all-out ban. intelligently and practically about the subject, before we take this very useful tool out of the box of law enforcement or private security.

Mark “Six” James is Founder and Executive Director of Panther Protection Services, LLC. He is an internationally published author, keynote speaker, security consultant to educational institutions and frequent contributor to several print, broadcast and online media. Panther Protection Services is a full-service protection agency focusing on Risk and Crisis Mitigation, Protective Services, Self-Defense Training, and Firearm Instruction. www.pantherprotectionservices.com