Police using chokeholds, should it ever happen? If you're fighting an individual in an effort to try to gain control of this person, you have other tools. You can have a taser that can be close up and personal, or you can use the taser from a distance. These intermediate ones are much more useful and much more preferred than a chokehold. You only need to use a chokehold if your life is in danger or the life of somebody else's in danger. It is considered deadly force. In other words, you could only use a chokehold in the same instance when you could even use your firearm.