Police officials in Sacramento, California, boast about their use of body cameras, and the quick release of the footage they capture, as centerpieces of a larger effort to improve the public’s trust.
But the fatal shooting by police officers last week of an unarmed black man, Stephon Clark, has exposed a potential flaw in that effort and opened up a new front in the national debate over body cameras: officers’ ability to turn off the microphone on the device.
Body cam footage from the two officers who shot Clark in a residential backyard after dark on March 18 includes the chase, one officer shouting “gun” in a mistaken belief that Clark was armed, then the gunfire. It also covers the aftermath, as backup arrives and the officers walk to the street. During their exit, one officer says, “Hey, mute.” Then the audio on both cameras goes silent while the video continues to show authorities responding to the scene.
Why the officers muted their body cameras remains unclear. Police Chief Daniel Hahn said last week that he could not explain it. He said there were “various reasons” why officers would turn off their cameras’ audio, but he would not say if the Clark shooting was one of them. The muting, he said, would be part of his agency’s investigation of the shooting.
The unanswered questions about the muted cams have stoked suspicion among Clark’s family and protesters, who have criticized the shooting as an illegal use of force.
“When I heard [about the muted cameras] I felt it was intentional,” Sonia Lewis, a cousin of Clark’s, said last week. “You’re muting something you don’t want the public to hear what you’re saying, and that means that if you don’t want the truth to come out then all of it is a lie.”
