Police may still use chokeholds despite arrest subject’s death

Police officers may continue using chokeholds during arrests, the Inspectorate for Security and Justice determined in their investigation into the controversial move, sources told broadcaster NOS. The Inspectorate launched an investigation into the chokehold in July last year, following the death of Aruban man Mitch Henriquez in police custody. An autopsy on his body showed that the likely cause of death is suffocation following a chokehold being used on him. That investigation is now complete, according to NOS' sources. The Inspectorate determined that the chokehold does not have to be banned as a method. But the investigators do question the use of the most severe form of the chokehold, in which someone's trachea is forced closed. The officer who performed the chokehold on Henriquez following his arrest at a music festival in Zuiderpark in The Hague, may be prosecuted for attempted murder or manslaughter. The Public Prosecutor still needs to make a decision about that.