Oregon legislators will be discussing a bill this week that prohibits police from using chokeholds under any circumstances. It’s not a good change.

Legislators forbade the use of chokeholds in the 2020 special session — except in situations when a law enforcement officer may use deadly force. The change in the law was a direct reaction to the death of George Floyd. We supported that change. But this week the Joint Committee On Transparent Policing and Use of Force Reform is planning to discuss a potential bill that would be an outright ban on chokeholds in Oregon.

There is a risk that by allowing chokeholds at all people will die. A chokehold will not always be used correctly and people may die even if it is used correctly. But is it better for an officer to use a chokehold rather than shoot a suspect? We would say yes. We would hope it never comes to that. But taking away the option for a chokehold can dramatically limit the options for a police officer in a life-and-death struggle.

Oregon can mandate more training for officers on how to defuse situations. But sometimes police will still be in struggles with suspects. Forbidding police from using chokeholds may guarantee more people are shot by police.