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"BTW I also heard the seatbelt rule was only about a week old."

New policy went into effect April 3rd. Gray was injured on April 12th, and died on April 19th.

One article cited the policy this way:

"The document, released by a police department spokesman, states that officers should 'ensure the safety of the detainee' and that 'all passengers, regardless of age and location, shall be restrained by seat belts or other authorized restraining devices.'"

As I stated on another thread, it says seat belt OR other authorized restraining devices. It doesn't explicitly state seatbelt AND other restraining device. It could mean either/or, and leaves the opportunity for individual interpretation based on the situation. Authorized restraining devices are cuffs (regular or plastic), and leg irons which come with various lengths of chain. When we transported prisoners in NY State Corrections, the inmates wore leg irons and cuffs. We also used what we called a black box, which locked over the key holes of the cuffs, and was secured in place with a heavy link chain which went around the inmate's waist and through the box itself, and was then padlocked. Any extra length of chain was padlocked to the chain to keep it was swinging. Our prison transport vans had seatbelts, but prison buses were a different story.

I remember one time being sent to Upstate Medical in Syracuse to escort inmates back to their home facility. They had been injured in a transport bus accident. The officer fell asleep at the wheel and rolled the bus on the NYS Thruway. None of those inmates were belted in. The ones we escorted back received only minor injuries, but others were kept in the hospital.

or other authorized restraining devices.

That phrase is what will get them off, in my opinion. I will go out on a limb and suggest facts we don't yet have, but I would think police, when forced to restrain a person, are not using leg irons like you see in prison movies, but something that severely restricts movement. With that type of restraint, is it really better to have the prisoner sitting on a seat, or lying on his belly on the floor?