There’s no way around it: anyone who uses physical restraint has got to know the relevant guidelines and legislation.
Ignore it, pay lip-service to it, and you could end up on the wrong end of a law suit – or worse.
An understanding of these principles is at the heart of our own physical restraint training. But when one of our most trusted industry contacts has produced an incredibly useful resource, we couldn’t keep it to ourselves. Respected trainer and industry expert Mark Dawes has produced a report titled ’85 Questions and Answers that relate to Physical Restraint’.
It does exactly what it says on the tin, and you can download it for free here. Happy reading!
Here’s a sample question to whet your appetite:
10. I see that in America a headlock has been used which killed the person in
question, is it legal in the UK? No one helped the guy in question, he was
unconscious and no one seemed to apply CPR. Are these officials guilty? How
would that work in the UK?
There are no legal or illegal techniques per se. Force is judged on the circumstances
a person finds themselves in at the time. However, with regard to restraint in the
scenario you describe, all UK guidance highlights the risk of neck restraints and
suggests that they should not be used due to the high risk associated with such
techniques and their implication in a number of restraint related deaths. Therefore,
any trained restraint team should avoid the need to use such a technique.
As for how this would work in the UK, I can comment from experience because I was
the expert witness in a case where a head/neck lock was intentionally applied to a
person being restrained who died in the restraint. The person who applied the
head/neck lock (also known as a ‘sleeper’ hold) was found guilty of manslaughter and
went to prison for six years.