PROBLEM: You know drug pushers in your area are dealing rock cocaine right out of their mouths. They keep their inventory in their cheeks or on their tongue or tucked down between their gum and lower lip. Others pop drugs or other contraband into their mouths like peanuts when they see you approaching. How do you keep these offenders from swallowing the evidence?
Some officers risk being bitten by using pens or their fingers in an effort to pry open the suspect’s teeth. Others resort to the popular C-clamp: an officer stabilizes the suspect’s head with one hand, grips his throat vise-like with the other and squeezes until the goods are expelled. But Sgt. John Riddle of the W. Palm Beach (FL) P.D., like many other trainers, has problems with that.
“I know this is not a taught technique, and on our department chokes of any kind are not allowed,” Riddle told Police1.com. “Also, it’s technically a use of force and as such requires a written report when used. You may cause unintended injury to the subject by deliberately choking him when he has swallowed something he might choke on. Plus, it just plain looks bad to the ‘audience’ that inevitably will be watching or even videotaping the encounter.”
After canvassing about 40 experienced narcs and uniformed patrol officers for better ideas, Riddle, a DT, firearms and SWAT instructor, suggested these techniques, which he says are now being used with success on the streets of West Palm Beach:
- If you’re close enough when the suspect starts swallowing, spin him around and perform a Heimlich maneuver, causing the contraband to be projected out so you can recover it. “This is a taught first-aid response rather than a renegade use of force, and in the public eye, it gives a more ‘helping’ image,” Riddle explains. This technique should be accompanied with verbal commands: “Spit it out! Spit it out!” Or, for benefit of civilian onlookers, even: “Sir, you’re choking! Spit it out!”
- A second option is to let the suspect swallow what’s in his mouth, then take him immediately to the ER and ask that vomiting be induce. “At least particles of what he’s gulped will come up,” Riddle says. “The hospital personnel will put it in a vial for you to have as evidence.” Rather than charging the suspect with possession, as may be possible if a Heimlich is successful, you might be able to support a lesser charge of tampering with evidence, depending on your jurisdiction and the cooperation you have with your prosecutors.
Riddle has found that just describing the stomach pumping process (“the worst feeling in the world”) to a suspect with a mouthful of evidence is sometimes enough to get them to spit it out without a struggle.