(CNN) About seven minutes after Sacramento police fatally shot an unarmed black man in his grandmother's backyard last week, officers were instructed to mute their body cameras.
The Sacramento Police Department on Wednesday released two body camera videos, the 911 call, the helicopter footage and radio traffic from the shooting.
In both videos, an officer can be heard saying, "Hey, mute." Directly after, the video goes silent and officers talk among themselves.
'It builds suspicion'
The shooting has sparked nationwide outrage , with the muting of the body cameras raising questions about the officers' actions. CNN has called and emailed the police department, but has not heard back.
Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn told CNN affiliate KCRA that the action has added to the tension after the shooting.
"Muting is one of those things that we have to take a look at," Hahn said. "Any time there is muting on this camera, it builds suspicion -- as it has in this case. And that is not healthy for us in our relationship with our community."
JUST WATCHED What you should know about police body-worn cameras Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH What you should know about police body-worn cameras 02:16
Although the Sacramento Police Department's 2016 body camera policy designates when to activate body cameras, it does not specifically mention when to activate or deactivate sound or audio recordings. Sacramento police, Hahn said, implemented body cameras last year.
When can officers deactivate body cameras?
The department policy includes 16 instances when a body camera is required to be activated, including vehicle stops and sobriety tests as well as foot and vehicle pursuits.
It says employees can deactivate their cameras in some instances, but that's based on their discretion. These instances may occur when officers are having tactical or confidential conversations, when officers are trying to conserve battery life or if a witness or victim refuses to give a statement on camera, according to the policy.
Some situations are also based on the officer's judgment, like if a recording would interfere with the officer's ability to investigate or if recording would be inappropriate based on the victim or witness' physical condition and emotional state.
However, it's unclear whether deactivating a body camera or muting are different things.
"I think it's a policy we should look at very carefully and perhaps change entirely," Mayor Darrell Steinberg said during a news conference Friday.
Expert: Muting can be justified at times
Peter Bibring, director of police practices with ACLU Southern California, said he's never heard of a department where an officer muted video.
"Just because an officer thinks this shouldn't be released," that's not a discussion officers should be having, he said. "Officers should not be having personal conversations during the course of an investigation. And that's certainly not what was going on here."
Seth W. Stoughton, assistant professor of law at the University of South Carolina School of Law, has done research, presentations and led training on body cameras for the past two years. He said he'd be surprised if muting cameras was illegal, but said he understands why officers would mute their video.
"They were in a situation where they didn't want a word to be scrutinized," he said.
The inclination among officers, Stoughton said, is not to record footage of an officer unwinding moments after a shooting because officers may not phrase things in the right way.
However, he said, muting hurts public trust and diminishes police accountability.
"I think that muting the microphone is wrong," Stoughton said. "By not capturing that information, they may be undermining the investigation."
A different perspective
When officers mute body cameras, Stoughton said, the public looks at it from a different perspective.
"From a public trust perspective, it may have been better to not have a body camera at all than to have it and turn it off halfway through," he said.
Body cameras provide information that the public wouldn't otherwise have, but "it's not perfect information," Stoughton said.
There is no statewide body camera policy in California, so body camera policies differ from agency to agency, said Jeff Noble, a police practice consultant and a former deputy police chief in Irvine, California.
"The cameras served the goal that we put body cameras out for, they were on and activated during the chase and during the shooting," Noble said.
The Sacramento Kings and the Boston Celtics took the court on Sunday wearing black T-shirts supporting Stephon Clark, an unarmed black man who was shot and killed in his own Sacramento backyard last week. The shirts bear two phrases: “Accountability. We are one.” on the front, and “#StephonClark” on the back.
Three days ago, hundreds of protestors blocked the entrance to the Kings’ Golden 1 Center, causing the game to be played in front of just a couple thousand fans. On Sunday, in an effort led by the Kings’ Garrett Temple, both teams wore a message promoting unity and police accountability.
Kings players wore Stephon Clark shirts during warmups today. pic.twitter.com/gdcJYuLtY8 — Kings on NBCS (@NBCSKings) March 25, 2018
The Celtics also wore the shirts, as can be seen here, something that their head coach Brad Stevens would be a decision made by the players.
Both teams also participated in a PSA video that aired during the game, featuring 17 players from the two teams. You can view it here.
Clark was a 22-year-old who was fatally shot at 20 times by police on March 18 when they mistook his cell phone for a weapon. Police officers were allegedly responded to reports of a man breaking car windows in the area near Clark’s grandparent’s house, where he had been staying. You can read more about Clark’s death and the ensuing protests here.
The shooting quickly gained attention from Black Lives Matters and other activists and organizations dedicated to holding police responsible, which led to Thursday’s protests outside Golden 1 Center and now these messages from the Kings and Celtics.
In wake of the on-field protests that swept the NFL, when players knelt during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial injustice, the NBA released a memo to teams that recommended ways to support community activism while reminding them of a league rule that enforced players standing during the anthem.
According to USA TODAY’s Sam Amick, the league was made aware of and supported the Kings’ plans to support the message of unity on Sunday. However, we’ve also seen that message co-opted by teams to offer generic support with no clear meaning, or one that has changed from the original one.
SHARE COPY LINK A crowd protesting the shooting death of Stephon Clark slowed traffic in downtown Sacramento on Friday afternoon, as a bus squeezed through. Sam Stanton
A crowd protesting the shooting death of Stephon Clark slowed traffic in downtown Sacramento on Friday afternoon, as a bus squeezed through. Sam Stanton
The Sacramento Kings took the home floor Sunday and donned T-shirts honoring the unarmed 22-year-old who was shot and killed by police last week.
KXTV
On the front of the shirts read "ACCOUNTABILITY. WE ARE ONE." On the back, there was a hashtag -- #StephonClark -- the name of the man who was killed March 18 in his grandmother's backyard.
We must unite. #StephonClark A post shared by Sacramento Kings (@sacramentokings) on Mar 25, 2018 at 1:41pm PDT
During a first-quarter timeout, a unified public service announcement from players from the Kings and the opposing team, the Boston Celtics, played on the JumboTron at Gold 1 Center in Sacramento.
In it, the players, over soft music, deliver various messages over the 30-second clip: "There must be accountability."
"We won't shut up and dribble."
"These tragedies have to stop."
Clark was killed after officers responded to a 911 call of a man in a hoodie breaking car windows and hiding in a backyard in the 7500 block of 29th Street.
Rich Pedroncelli/AP
When the officers encountered Clark there, according to released body cam footage, they believed Clark was in possession of a "toolbar," according to police accounts.
Officers said Clark motioned toward them and one of them can be heard yelling: "Show me your hands... Gun, gun, gun."
After both officers fired 20 shots, fatally wounding Clark, investigators recovered a cell phone near Clark's body but no weapons.
Since the shooting, protestors have taken to the streets to call for change.
Bob Strong/Reuters
On Thursday, protesters formed a human wall and shouted "Shut it down!" stalling a game between the Kings and the Atlanta Hawks and preventing fans from entering the arena.
More protests are being planned. Longtime community activist Berry Accius, 40, who moved to the state capital 12 years ago from Long Island, New York, told ABC News that on Tuesday at 5 p.m. there will be a rally to "blackout" City Hall.
Bob Strong/Reuters
"People will be wearing black to represent the anti-blackness that has been shown out here in Sacramento," he said.
Through a family spokesman, Clark's family declined an interview. His brother, Stevante Clark, and the spokesman, however, said Benjamin Crump -- who represented the family of Trayvon Martin, 17, who was fatally shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Florida in 2012 -- would serve as an attorney for the Clark family.
ABC News' Josiah Bates contributed to this report.
