MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. — In a swift police reform bill, the Montgomery County Council voted Wednesday evening on a new Use of Force policy that the Montgomery County police chief will have to adopt.
Part of that new set of regulations includes a ban on chokeholds and limits the use of deadly force.
“The Use of Force bill is really a reflection of the moment in history that we're in, where it's really an urgent matter that we reform and re-imagine public safety,” Montgomery County Councilmember Will Jawando said. “When you saw the murder of George Floyd, the level of force that was used, a disregard for his humanity, that has woken people up to the inequities in our policing system and in particular in police violence.”
The unanimously approved police reform bill includes new policies that will prohibit officers from using deadly force except when as a last resort.
It also requires officers to stop, or attempt to stop, the use of excessive force of another office.
“The policy must include prohibiting neck or carotid restraint and striking a restrained individual. The policy also must limit the police from using deadly force against a fleeing person,” a Montgomery County release said. “Moreover, the bill limits no-knock warrants and prohibits shooting at moving vehicles, unless the vehicle is being used as a weapon and the circumstances would authorize the use of deadly force.”
“You have some residents who feel safe with police and many that do not,” Jawando said. "And a lot of those are communities of color or immigrant communities. We also want to send a strong message to them that you'll be protected under these types of policies.”
The councilmember said the policies are part of an expedited bill that will go into effect immediately upon the county executive’s signature. Jawando said the executive will plan to do that in the next few days.
He said from there, the police chief will have to write the new policy and have it ready to be implemented within six months.
“The bill has to be promulgated and put out under our requirements within the next six months, and then you'll have to retrain and train officers on the new policy because it is a difference it's higher than the current standard that's used in most of the country,” Jawando said.
Jawando said there was some opposition to the bill, but said there was a lot of community support. He said he and his colleague’s offices received over 4-thousand messages regarding the need for police reform and re-imagining public safety.