Milwaukee Common Council passes resolution, urges FPC to ban police chokeholds

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Milwaukee's Common Council passed a resolution Tuesday afternoon, urging the Fire and Police Commission to officially ban chokeholds.

At least one activist we spoke to says it's a sign of progress, but more needs to be done.

Alderwoman JoCasta Zamarripa thinks it's time chokeholds are officially banned in Milwaukee.

The resolution she put forward is in honor of Joel Acevedo, who died at the hands of an off-duty Milwaukee police officer in April.

The Milwaukee Police Department stopped training officers to use chokeholds back in the 1990s, but Zamarripa says that's not enough.

"I think it's important to call on the Fire and Police Commission to lay this down in an SOP and make it official that we ban chokeholds and strangleholds by the police."

Community activist Vaun Mayes was encouraged by the vote Tuesday, but he thinks chokeholds aren't the only problem, and the FPC can go even further.

"I would like to see that it has specific language about the knees on necks and in backs, other uses of force that we do have issues with," he said.

After months of people marching in the streets, Tuesday's vote shows progress.

But Mayes says there is more to be done. 

"Our local leaders, the FPC, there are things they can do in good faith to speak to the people to say we are actually listening to what you're actually saying the problems are."

We did reach out to the police union after Tuesday's vote, but did not hear back.