Furman’s Mondé weighs in on use of restraint device by law enforcement

Furman University’s Geniece Mondé, the Herman N. Hipp Associate Professor of Sociology, spoke with FOX Carolina News about law enforcement’s use of a mechanism for restraining people who might become a danger to themselves or others. It’s called a WRAP, and the full-body restraint device was used in the arrest of a Cherokee County man in 2022. Bound by the WRAP for nearly seven hours at the Cherokee County Detention Center, he suffered cardiac arrest and later died in the hospital. Other toxins may have contributed to his heart failure.

Mondé, who studies interactions between communities and law enforcement, said the WRAP is billed as pain-free, but that doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous. Adhering to polices for the proper use of the device is imperative, she said, to ensure law enforcement is applying techniques or mechanisms “equitably across the population.” She also noted that communities of color are often disproportionately impacted when it comes to physical restraint or use of violent force.

She believes such measures should be a last resort. Unless the subject is posing a clear and imminent threat, she said words work best. “First and foremost, the best way to engage with the public is to use those verbal commands, methods that don’t necessarily require that their physical person be restrained.”

The FOX Carolina Investigates piece ran on other networks and in multiple markets including KALB (NBC) in Alexandria, Louisianna; KSMO in Kansas City, Missouri; WITN (NBC) in Greenville, North Carolina; The CW Knoxville; Peachtree TV in Atlanta; WIS-COL in Columbia, South Carolina; KSCW in Wichita, Kansas; and WXIX-CIN (FOX) in Cincinnati.