Wichita police to ban kneeling on handcuffed people’s necks

WICHITA — Wichita police plan to ban officers from kneeling on the necks of people in handcuffs.

The Wichita Eagle reports that several other proposed policy changes that protesters have called for are included in a document that police provided Thursday to the Citizen’s Review Board.

Other proposed changes to the use of force policy include a duty to intervene for officers witnessing unethical behavior, a requirement to provide medical aid after deadly force is used and a general prohibition on shooting at vehicles.

The document said those and other changes were added at the police chief’s request.

The plan to change the department’s use of force policy comes after demonstrations over George Floyd’s death in police custody in Minneapolis.

Protesters in Wichita have demanded that police adopt the initiatives of #8CantWait, a project from Campaign Zero that calls for police to take eight steps to decrease police killings, including banning choke holds and requiring deescalation training.

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