PD Editorial: Limit when police officers can hit mute

Santa Rosa police officials should heed an independent auditor's recommendation to restrict how often officers can silence the audio on their body cameras.

In a review of police department operations, Palo Alto attorney Bob Aaronson called into question a policy that allows officers to use the mute buttons on their body cams. He suggested that audio and video should be turned on during all service calls by police officers, from the moment they arrive at the scene to the moment they depart.

“We're not just trying to narrowly analyze whether a use of force was sanctioned, but to examine in every aspect how a call for service was managed,” wrote Aaronson, who reviewed 688 body cam videos as part of his audit.

Current policy allows officers to turn off cameras when they're discussing medical or tactical issues with supervisors, but that's too broad and open to abuse. “I worry that the ‘revealing tactics' reason for muting cameras is overused, to say the least,” Aaronson wrote. “In my experience, the vast majority of communication at the scene is not regarding secret tactics but simple supervision and incident management.”

We hope that Aaronson's recommendation isn't overshadowed by a sharp disagreement last week with City Council members over his observations about homelessness.

Video from body cameras is widely seen as a safeguard against police officers who stray from their pledge to serve and protect. But the cameras also benefit officers. Since they were introduced by the city, the number of complaints against officers has declined, and complaints are resolved more quickly.

For an example of what could go wrong when cameras are muted, Santa Rosa officials need look no further than Sacramento, where police officers quickly silenced the audio after an unarmed man was shot by police near his grandparents' home in April.

That simple act of hitting the mute button seriously damaged public confidence in the department and undermined the investigation into what had transpired before the victim, Stephon Clark, was killed. Similar controversies have arisen in San Francisco, Chicago and elsewhere when officers involved in fatal shootings inactivated or failed to turn on the sound on their cameras.

Following the Clark shooting in Sacramento, police officials narrowed the number of reasons the audio could be muted, allowing inactivation in cases of sexual assault or when a crime victim won't give a statement on camera. That's a good place for Santa Rosa to start their discussion of revisions.

As Aaronson points out, the tapes also can be studied to improve service and ensure police are following procedures designed to protect both them and the public.

Santa Rosa police officials certainly should understand how much they have to gain from such lessons. Last year, officers recorded with their body cams while evacuating neighborhoods during the historic firestorm that destroyed 5,300 homes and claimed 24 lives in Sonoma County. Those tapes documented what went well and what might be needed to facilitate future evacuations.

Police Chief Hank Schreeder should move quickly to revise instructions to officers on the use of the mute button. A silenced camera at the wrong moment could do serious damage to the department's credibility and to its ability to do its job - damage that could take years to repair.

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