Fargo and Moorhead Police Departments said they have no plan to ban chokeholds. | Pixabay
Fargo and Moorhead Police Departments said they have no plan to ban chokeholds. | Pixabay
Fargo and Moorhead Police Departments have no current plan to ban chokeholds, despite national and worldwide movements to do so.
Calls for chokehold bans were renewed after the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis under the knee of a former police officer.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz urged state legislators earlier this month to ban chokeholds. Moorhead Police Chief Shannon Monroe said there's no plan in the works to list the tactic as a prohibited method in their department policy.
Chokeholds are "something that is so far out of our realm of defensive tactics that it isn't listed in our curriculum," Fargo Sgt Mike Sanden told Brainerd Dispatch.
Police departments in the Fargo-Moorhead region don't have policies that explicitly ban performing chokeholds on suspects, but they don't train their officers not to use them either. Both North Dakota and Minnesota have state laws that allow the use of force when it's necessary and reasonable, though neither law specifically mentions chokeholds.
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