I've thought about this quite a bit. It hits right at the source of the problem. I had a couple of ideas... knowing these are entirely theoretical. The objective being to protect lives - suspects and cops - and to prevent chases which leads to a heightened sense of fight or flight, which can cause both overreact emotionally.
Right now the primary goal of cops is upper body restraint. If someone struggles then a take-down is normally attempted, which leads to a gang tackle. Injuries can occur both ways.... plus the close contact means access to cop weapons increases. The panic induced from the struggle heightens emotions. How many times does a peaceful stop turn into a dangerous encounter once restraints are applied?
First, what if restraint attempts focused on lower body instead? Something can be applied around the feet which brings them together (like a zip tie but more advanced). Once applied then cops back off - knowing running is impossible (as opposed hand cuffs).
This would remove the need for choke-holds, knees on the neck/shoulder blades, etc... all the techniques cops apply in order to subdue sometimes larger suspects. It takes the need to fight completely off the table for both sides. Just the take down itself can lead to injuries. This is applying just a basic knowledge of martial arts... quickest moves are always to take out the legs first.
Second, just don't chase non-violent suspects. The guy at Wendy's had already been ID'd and could have been tracked down later. The guy with the taser is more difficult; however once he was out of the car then his threat was removed, since the concern there is public safety due to his intoxication.
This isn't a new concept either... When high speed car chases led to more injuries to the public than just letting suspects go, policing was changed to follow at low speeds or through the air. Same reasoning applied here but to foot chases. This may lead to more suspects getting away, but most can be tracked down later.
So to answer your question
@aUTfan, anyone suspected of violence to the public would be taken down with leg restraints as a first option. If those don't work then existing options would need to be applied. We can't hope to remove all fatal encounters in these situations, but at least fatal encounters can be reduced to truly violent individuals (and not those passing a fake check).
