In hopes of quelling anger over Chicago police shooting and killing Harith Augustus on the city’s South Side over the past weekend, the city’s top cop — touting transparency — released an edited video clip of the encounter.
There’s no audio to go with that footage, which was captured by the body camera of a probationary officer who killed the apparently armed barber. It’s unclear whether an extended version of the video, or other video, also captures sound.
So why doesn’t it exist? The officer hit the record button on his camera too late in the exchange with Augustus, police said. And the cameras are programmed so that the first 30 seconds of video have no audio.
Without sound, the public is left wondering what, if any, words were exchanged between Augustus and officers seconds before police fired shots. Nancy La Vigne, a researcher who has done work on police body cameras, said without the audio the public is missing a critical piece of context to explain the shooting. For instance, the public can’t hear the commands an officer might be yelling and how the civilian is reacting, and viewers also can’t hear what the civilian might be saying to the officer, La Vigne said.
“You can’t see their (the officers’) faces or read their lips and often you can’t even read the lips of the person they are interacting with just because the video footage isn’t always of high enough quality to do that,” La Vigne said.
The audio lag is a feature that offers officers privacy, said Steve Tuttle, a spokesman for Axon, the company that manufactures the Chicago Police Department’s body cameras.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability, the agency that investigates police-involved shootings in Chicago, generally has 60 days to release videos and records. That means additional footage from Saturday’s shooting could be released in September as the contentious trial of Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke, charged with first-degree murder in 17-year-old Laquan McDonald’s shooting, begins in Chicago.
Saturday’s deadly shooting happened about 5:30 p.m. in the 2000 East 71st Street, as officers tried to detain Augustus, 37, who worked as a barber in the South Shore neighborhood.
In the partial video released by police, Augustus appears to have a holstered handgun at his side. In the video, after officers have walked up, including one who appears to be speaking to him, Augustus is seen opening his wallet — then moves his hand toward his holster — just before three other officers swiftly surround him with one appearing to grab at his wrist. Augustus then twists away and darts between two parked cars. As he is fleeing, his arm appears to move toward the holstered gun.
The case leaves many questions not only about the killing itself but also how police body cameras work. Here’s what we know nearly a week after later.
Why do officers wear body cameras?
The Chicago Police Department equipped its officers in all districts with body cameras in 2017, though a pilot program had been in place before. The move to expand the program to all districts came amid a federal investigation into the department and continued mistrust of police within African-American and Latino communities.
Community activists pushed for body cameras following the release of a squad car video that showed Officer Van Dyke shooting McDonald 16 times as the teen, holding a knife, walked away.
How do body cameras work?
While a body camera constantly records, it does not begin storing audio and video until an officer double taps a large circular “event button” on the device, Axon’s Tuttle said.
The saved recording will include video of the 30 seconds before the camera was activated but it won’t include audio. By double-tapping the button, Tuttle said that sends a signal to officers to switch gears and go into professional mode rather than having conversations that could be personal.
“It was a win-win for the unions and the public,” Tuttle said.
When do Chicago police officers have to activate body cameras?
Under the department’s special orders, officers are mandated to activate body cameras as soon as an incident begins. A so-called incident would include an arrest, traffic stop, or a request to search a home or vehicle or even pat someone down.
The department’s order dictates that officers must keep the body camera rolling until the incident ends, which is when an officer has been cleared from an assignment or the interaction ends. During a use of force investigation, body cameras can be turned off when the highest-ranking supervisor on the scene determines the scene is secured.
Any officer who doesn’t comply with the special order is subject to discipline, training or other remedial action, according to the Chicago Police Department.
Department spokesman Thomas Ahern said this week that the two officers involved in Saturday’s shooting did not violate department rules by activating their body cameras so late in their encounter with Augustus.
Are there other ways to activate body cameras?
There is technology that activates body cameras through sensory motions such as when an officer gets out of a police vehicle or when a firearm is removed from an officer’s holster. In those cases, the saved recording would also include the 30 seconds before the device was activated but it would not include audio, Tuttle said.
La Vigne, vice president of the Justice Policy Center at the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Institute, said that type of technology could provide more insight into what happens during police shootings.
“This is something that agencies grapple with a lot,” La Vigne said. “The public demand is fierce and for a good reason.”
Do other departments with body cameras have the 30-second buffer?
The 30-second buffer is a standard practice for police departments, though some pick up audio as quickly as 20 seconds into the buffer time, La Vigne said.
Still, the practice raises questions about when exactly an officer should activate the camera. Ideally, officers would push the button as soon as an interaction with anyone in the public begins, when a call for service comes in or when an officer is dispatched somewhere, La Vigne said.
“That is the best practice (but) not necessarily what is happening on the ground,” La Vigne said.
Chicago Tribune’s Annie Sweeney, John Byrne and William Lee contributed.
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