The Nevada Assembly approved a bill banning the police from using chokeholds on suspects on Saturday, while the Nevada Senate is mulling over a bill to scale back protections for officers being investigated for misconduct.
The Assembly bill, which passed through the legislative chamber 38-4, bans chokeholds, puts in place procedures around misuse of force, and gives the right to citizens to film police activity, the Las Vegas Sun reported.
KTNV reported that the bill also requires that another police officer should intervene if he or she feels that the officer is misusing force and requires that all misuse of force incidents be reported to the officer’s law enforcement agency.
The bill defines a chokehold as a technique that applies pressure to the neck to stop airflow or blood from getting to the brain.
Chokeholds have been a point of controversy in law enforcement agencies for years, most notably after the killings of Eric Garner in New York in 2014 and, more recently, George Floyd in Minnesota this year. Both died after being placed in chokeholds by their respective police officers.
The chokehold bill is now headed to the Senate over the next couple of days.
At least a dozen other state legislatures have passed anti-chokehold or other police reform legislation, including Minnesota, New York, Colorado, and Connecticut, the Associated Press reported.
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