According to city officials, the Jamestown Police Department does not use chokeholds during arrests.

During the last week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has approved several police reforms, including a ban on chokeholds by police officers.

The reforms follow the death of George Floyd Jr., an African-American who was killed during a police arrest by a white officer who pressed his knee to Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes.

Brent Sheldon, Ward 1 councilman and Public Safety Committee chairman, said Harry Snellings, Jamestown Police Department chief and city public safety director, told him that officers are not trained to use a chokehold, so the technique is not allowed to be used.

“As far as I know, officers haven’t had to use that (technique),” Sheldon said.

Eddie Sundquist, Jamestown mayor, agreed that the use of chokeholds are not included in new officer training.

“(The use of a chokehold) has been out of date for sometime. If an officer does it, they’re not doing it as part of the official training,” he said. “We got rid of batons many years ago.”

Cuomo also approved a law mandating that an officer who has fired their weapon in the line of duty to report the incident within six hours. Sheldon said any time an officer has to use physical force or fire their weapon, they fill out a form detailing the incident. Sundquist said the forms are very thorough and requires the signatures of the commanding officer.

Cuomo has also ordered that all municipalities in New York must redesign their police force policies by April 1, 2021, or risk losing state aid. Sheldon said the new reforms is something city and Jamestown Police Department officials will need to do and can do.

“The mayor is going to have to convince the head of the local police agency (to implement the new reforms), which will be the new chief,” Sheldon said.

Earlier this month, Snellings announced that he will be retiring next month, which means the next chief of the Jamestown Police Department will handle implementing the new policies to meet Cuomo’s mandate.

“We will also need to bring in community members to help develop the plan,” Sheldon said.

Sundquist said he doesn’t foresee a problem with implementing the reforms because the city’s police department has already approved many of the policies. He also doesn’t see the search for a new chief impeding the department from implementing any new policies approved by the state.

“I don’t expect the police chief search to take a year. Maybe a couple of months,” he said. “We will be looking for a new police chief that has a good grasp of the reforms, and has good community relations.”

Sheldon said, so far, city officials haven’t received any official guidance yet from the state on what new policies need to be implemented.

“It will be coming at some point,” he said.

Sheldon said he doesn’t believe the new police reforms will impact the Jamestown Police Department as much as the new laws might impact police department’s in larger cities in the state.

“I don’t think it’s going to be more difficult to do their job,” he said. “At least not in our area.”

Sheldon said one of the new reforms is about bringing on more mental health professionals into police departments. He believes this is a move in the right direction because officers, who might have been trained in how to deal with people with mental health issues, don’t have the experience mental health professional have through years of working in the profession.

“(A police officer) might have taken a class (in dealing with someone with a mental health issues), but they’re not a trained professional,” he said.

Anthony Dolce, council president, said he hasn’t seen any specifics yet on the new police reforms the Jamestown Police Department will need to implement. He also said that the city’s police department has already implemented many of the reforms Cuomo is approving.

“Most of the things (Cuomo) passed are things we are already doing here in Jamestown,” Dolce said. “We were ahead of the curve.”

Snellings didn’t respond to inquiries by The Post-Journal to comment on the new police reforms approved by Cuomo.