Stranglehold use by her cops ‘concerns’ Queensland chief Katarina Carroll

Queensland’s police commissioner has conceded she is ‘concerned’ about her officers’ continued use of an approved stranglehold linked to the death of a young Aboriginal man.

Queensland Police commissioner Katarina Carroll. Picture: Nev Madsen

Queensland’s police commissioner has conceded she is “concerned” about her officers’ continued use of an approved stranglehold linked to the death of a young Aboriginal man while he resisted arrest.

Katarina Carroll on Tuesday told reporters at Queensland’s parliament that a decision was imminent as to whether the “Lateral Vascular Neck Restraint” – taught at the police academy – would be banned in line with the rest of Australia’s state and federal police services.

A secret internal review of the restraint was completed in Nov­ember, but Ms Carroll admitted she had received a briefing on its findings only in the past few days after revelations in The Weekend Australian about its use ahead of the 2021 death of Steven Nixon-McKellar, 27, in Toowoomba.

She said she had asked for more information from the working group of senior police, ambulance officers and the Crime and Corruption Commission representatives who conducted the six-month review and “as soon as I get that, a decision will be made”.

“I will be getting a brief on that very, very shortly and some decisions will be made from that; I’m obviously concerned that that is still practice,’’ Ms Carroll said.

“I need to look at the evidence and see what it says, if the risk is too much.

“I have no issues with stopping its use but I do need to listen to the committee.”

Queensland police are trained to use the LVNR that, according to its operational procedures manual, involves compressing the arteries and veins in the neck so as to cut off blood supply to the brain, leading “to altered levels of ­consciousness

They receive annual training in how to “apply the hold from behind the subject person only” and “immediately cease maximum compression” if the person complies or “loses consciousness”.

It was revealed in The Weekend Australian that when Nixon-McKellar resisted arrest in October 2021 in Toowoomba over a stolen car, an officer used the LVNR, squeezing his neck for an estimated 11 seconds.

A post-mortem examination found that Nixon-McKellar, who had ice in his system and underlying health problems, including asthma and hearty disease, suffered a cardiac arrest and died.

“The precise mechanism of death cannot be determined at ­autopsy examination,’’ it found.

“Given the close temporal relationship between pressure being applied to the neck and cardiac arrest, it is considered a significant contributory factor.”

Last May, Queensland police began a review into the continued use of the LVNR ordered by the state coroner after the 2018 death in Townsville of another Aboriginal man, 39-year-old Trevor King, also known as Noombah, on whom police had unsuccessfully attempted to apply the restraint.

Leaked documents show that interstate and federal police ser­vices had told the working group that the LVNR had been banned in their jurisdictions and warned of its risks as a use-of-force option.

A majority of the working group voted in November to retain use of the LVNR but ordered a more detailed 12-month review into the technique.

Ms Carroll said the LVNR was rarely used and usually only in “life and death situations”.

She said it was one of 12 use-of-force options under the police ­operational procedures manual and any consideration of its ­possible removal had to look at ­alternatives.

“So when you actually have that (LVNR) and all of the other use of force options we have, it’s not a case of you just stop, you’ve got to then retrain people, there’s muscle memory,’’ she said.

“We will consider that and certainly a decision will be made very shortly.”

A date for the coronial inquest into the death of Nixon-McKellar has yet to be set.