(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."
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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.
The Kings wore warmups Sunday honoring Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old African-American man who was shot and killed by Sacramento police officers Sunday, March 18.
Clark was unarmed at the time of the shooting, which happened in his grandparent's backyard.
On Thursday, protestors blocked the entrance to the Golden 1 Center prior to the Kings' game against the Hawks, and tip-off was delayed about 20 minutes because fans could not get into the arena. In the end, the game ended up being played in a mostly empty stadium.
After the contest, team owner Vivek Ranadive addressed the crowd and gave his condolences to the Clark family, calling the shooting a "horrific tragedy."
On Friday it was reported that former King DeMarcus Cousins reached out to the Clark family and volunteered to pay for the funeral.
The back of shirt the Kings will wear today pic.twitter.com/7kHzTPvdb6 — Jason Jones (@mr_jasonjones) March 25, 2018
The shirts read "Accountability. We Are One." on the front and "#StephonClark" on the back.
Sacramento will face the Celtics on Sunday. Sam Amick of USA Today Sports reports Boston originally planned on wearing the shirts as well, but decided not to. Additionally, he reports the teams recorded a PSA together that will play during the first quarter.
Players from the Sacramento Kings and Boston Celtics have teamed up to push for police accountability following the death of Stephon Clark, an unarmed black man shot and killed by Sacramento police officers.
A public service announcement featuring players from both teams aired during their Sunday matchup.
Kings players also wore custom warmup shirts that called for unity and accountabiltiy on the front and had Clark's name in the back.
MORE: Images of athletes taking political stances
Clark, 22, was shot 20 times in his grandmother's back yard by Sacramento officers when his phone was confused for a firearm. Protests broke out the Thursday after the incident in Sacramento. Demonstrators marched from City Hall to the Golden 1 Center and barricaded the arena's entrances prior to the Kings' game against the Hawks, delaying tipoff and preventing thousands from getting into the arena.
After the game, Kings owner Vivek Ranadive addressed the crowd, calling the shooting "horrific" and saying the team would use its platform for positive change.
"It's something that I think we can use our platform, like Vivek said, to support and try to create change," guard Garrett Temple told the Sacramento Bee after Thursday's game. "Because no matter how you look at it, these things have to stop, one way or another. Us being on the national stage, we have a way to try to push our support towards change, and we're going to try to do that."
NBA players have used their warmup shirts to advocate for change in the past, from 2014's "I can't breathe" shirts to remember Eric Garner — who died after a chokehold was applied to him by New York City police officer Daniel Pantaleo — to Saturday when Ben Simmons wore a March for Our Lives shirt.
Athlete protests have faced harsher levels of scrutiny outside the Association. Former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick — who protested police brutality and racial inequality by kneeling during the national anthem throughout the 2016 season — has been called out by President Donald Trump and has filed a collusion lawsuit against the NFL after going unsigned as a free agent in 2017.
