A Prospective Analysis of the Outcomes of Violent Prone Restraint Incidents in Policing

Abstract

Placing a combative person in the prone position occurs numerous times daily throughout the country without the incident resulting in serious injury to the person, let alone a sudden death. In statistically rare incidents, the individual may unexpectedly and suddenly die within a short amount of time after restraint. Questions may arise which implicate the officers use of force measures asserting that placing the arrestee in the prone position caused the death. What remains unanswered in majority of the sudden in custody restraint incidents is the question of whether prone restraint caused the death. Using a prospective design, this study examined the outcomes of 1085 violent arrest incidents over 12 months with 17 police agencies in the United States. Male arrestees accounted for 85 percent and arrestees were placed in the prone position from about 1 to 5 minutes. About 84 percent of the arrestees exhibited behaviors resembling chemical substance use, psychiatric impairment, or both. Police officers commonly used several force measures to control and restrain the arrestee including: empty-hand control techniques; a TASER; an aerosol; applying weight force on the back of the arrestee; a hobble strap; and handcuffs. None of the arrestees died during the study period and moderate injuries were sustained in 16 percent of the incidents and significant injuries were sustained in 4 percent. Arrestee’s injuries were associated with their active behaviors of resistance during the arrest and continued resistance after restraint. Regression analysis revealed three predictive outcome models (p=0.001) showing the relationships among common variables when using the prone position revealing that arrestees rarely sustain an injury. The results show that the use of the prone position with violent arrestees is a safe restraint method and that the officers’ use of force is rare.