Signed by Governor Steve Sisolak

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that would prohibit police officers from using chokeholds, authorize the recording of police officers and require officers to undergo drug & alcohol testing if they're involved in a shooting.

Highlights:

• Prohibits a peace officer from using a choke hold on another person in carrying out their duties (Sec. 4).

• Defines “choke hold” as (Sec. 4):

• A method by which a person applies sufficient pressure to another person to make breathing difficult or impossible, including any pressure to the neck, throat, or windpipe that may prevent or hinder breathing or reduce intake of air; or

• Applying pressure to a person’s neck on either side of the windpipe, but not the windpipe itself, to stop the flow of blood to the brain via carotid arteries. 

• Authorizes an officer to use only the amount of reasonable force necessary to effect the arrest if the defendant flees or forcibly resists arrest (Sec. 2). 

• Authorizes a person who is not under arrest or in the custody of a peace officer to record a law enforcement activity and maintain custody and control of that recording and any property or instruments used by the person to record a law enforcement activity (Sec. 1).

• Specifies that a person who is under arrest or in the custody of a peace officer does not, by that status alone, forfeit the right to have any such recordings, property, or instruments maintained (Sec. 1).

• Specifies that this bill should not be constructed to authorize a person to engage in actions that physically interfere with or obstruct a law enforcement activity or otherwise violate any other law in an effort to record a law enforcement activity (Sec. 1).

• Prohibits a peace officer from acting or interfering with a person’s recording of a law enforcement activity, including by (Sec. 1):

• Intentionally preventing the person from recording a law enforcement activity; 

• Threatening the person for recording a law enforcement activity; 

• Commanding that the person cease recording a law enforcement activity when the person was nevertheless authorized to record the law enforcement activity; 

• Stopping, seizing, or searching the person because they recorded a law enforcement activity; or

• Unlawfully seizing property or instruments used by the person to record a law enforcement activity, unlawfully destroying or seizing any recorded image of a law enforcement activity, or copying such a recording without the consent of the person who recorded it or obtaining approval from an appropriate court.

• Defines “law enforcement activity” as any activity by a peace officer acting under the law (Sec. 1).

• Requires a peace officer to ensure that medical aid is rendered to any person who is injured by the use of physical force by a peace officer in carrying out their duties (Sec. 4).

• Requires a peace officer to intervene to prevent or stop another peace officer from using unjustified physical force while carrying out the arrest of a person, placing a person under detention, taking a person into custody, or booking a person (Sec. 5).

• Requires a peace officer who observes an act of unjustified use of force to report the observation to a supervising officer (Sec. 5). 

• Requires each law enforcement agency to adopt a written policy regarding the drug and alcohol testing of a peace officer following an officer-involved shooting or when the conduct of an officer results in substantial bodily harm to or the death of another person (Sec. 6).

Full Bill Text