The Antioch City Council has made its first official move on restricting police restraints, particularly those involving “positional asphyxia.”

On a 3-2 vote, the council this week directed the city manager, city attorney and Police Department “to develop a policy that protects members of the public involved in law enforcement encounters by identifying and prohibiting the use of police officer restraints, holds, tactics and maneuvers that pose a substantial risk of positional asphyxiation, potentially resulting in unconsciousness or death.”

The council action followed a community uproar over the county coroner’s inquest report on the in-custody death of Angelo Quinto involving Antioch police in December. A forensic pathologist hired by the county decided that Quinto’s death was due to “excited delirium syndrome.”

The Quinto family and their lawyers have blamed his death on restraint asphyxia. Police had been called originally over an apparent mental health crisis with Quinto, a 30-year-old U.S. Navy veteran.

Following the coroner’s ruling, Mayor Lamar Thorpe announced his support for a ban on the controversial restraint. Thorpe also is backing Assembly Bill 490, which has passed the state Assembly and is awaiting action by the state Senate and would ban the police use of positional asphyxia.

The bill defines the restraint practice as “situating a person in a manner that compresses their airway and reduces the likelihood that they will be able to breathe normally. This includes, without limitation, the use of any physical restraint technique, device, or position that causes a person’s respiratory airway to be compressed or impairs the person’s breathing or respiratory capacity, including any technique in which pressure or body weight is unreasonably applied against a restrained person’s neck, torso, or back, or positioning a restrained person in a prone or supine position without proper monitoring for signs of asphyxia.”

Assemblyman Jim Frazier was among the scores of public commenters who spoke in support of the local ban and AB 490 that took up hours of the council’s Aug. 24 meeting.

Quinto’s mother, Maria Cassandra Quinto-Collins, phoned in to express her “outrage and disgust” at the coroner’s ruling.

Thorpe said Wednesday he is hoping the city’s policy will follow a similar policy put in place in Oakland. He also hopes to get the new policy presented for final approval at the council’s Sept. 14 meeting.