<p>Decatur police are changing procedures after an 18-year-old man committed suicide while in custody.</p><p>Jamell McKinnon, who had been arrested on drug possession charges, was in a holding cell May 15 when he strangled himself with a lanyard.</p><p>The death was recorded by a video camera in the cell. But department staff were not monitoring the video as required, police said.</p><p>New rules will require someone to personally watch detainees and remove loose belongings. Also, limits will be placed on how long detainees can be kept in a holding cell before they are transferred to the DeKalb County Jail.</p><p>The new rules also "restate for clarification" that people who are arrested be handcuffed with their hands behind them _ not in front, Decatur Police Chief Leander Robinson said.</p><p>At Robinson's request, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is investigating to see if there was criminal wrongdoing in McKinnon's death, according to spokesman John Bankhead.</p><p>Robinson said the results of his department's own investigation were turned over Thursday to the Decatur city attorney and city manager. Robinson declined to say why department personnel were not monitoring the video, citing the continuing investigation.</p><p>The new procedures come as McKinnon's family tries to understand why he would have killed himself and why police did not stop him.</p><p>"It's absurd that the police department is filming a teenager kill himself inside their own precinct," said Jesse Williams, McKinnon's father, who lives in New York. "The only thing that would have stopped Jamell from dying is someone paying attention to that tape."</p><p>Robinson said the department is looking into hiring an officer to sit outside the holding cells to monitor them.</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x28665a8)</p>
