FARMINGTON, Utah — Within minutes after Wednesday's fatal shooting involving several Farmington police officers, anyone listening to police radio would have heard officers being told to turn off their body cameras.
That instruction has caused some people to ask more questions about the way the case is being handled.
A first call went out over the radio about four minutes after the shooting took place in the parking lot of the post office, then another call about 16 minutes later.
In the first transmission, officers who are "off the scene" are told to turn off their cameras.
In the second, all officers "on the Farmington incident" are told to make sure the cameras are turned off.
3:27 p.m.
Shots fired
3:31 p.m.
"If you're off the scene, you can go ahead and kill your bodycams"
3:46 p.m.
"Make sure that all the bodycams have been shut off now."
"10-4. All units on the Farmington incident, make sure your bodycams are shut off."
Most departments like Farmington have body cameras for the purpose of accountability and transparency. They also have policies explaining when to turn them on and when officers are allowed to turn them off.
According to Chief Eric Johnsen, officers are asked to turn off their body cameras within a reasonable amount of time after an officer-involved shooting for a variety of reasons.
After the incident, a supervisor took control of the body cameras for all five officers and sequestered them from the scene.
Members of the Davis County Officer-Involved Critical Incident Response Team will be tasked with reviewing every second of body camera video.
If officers are sitting alone in a police car, it would not be an appropriate use of resources for investigators to review hours of video without pertinent information, Johnsen said.
Farmington PD's body camera policy states: "...the portable recorder should remain on continuously until the member reasonably believes his or her direct participation in the incident is complete or the situation no longer fits the criteria for activation.”
Michael White, a criminology professor at Arizona State University, said 20 minutes is more than enough time for body cameras to be recording after an incident.
"I have read hundreds and hundreds of body-worn camera policies for agencies all across the United States," White said. "You're not going to keep them recording nonstop... I think a 20-minute window is actually a fairly extended period of time to keep a camera activated after an incident has ended, even a critical incident, and it makes sense to me."
Johnsen said the five officers have not been interviewed yet, which is typical because officers are usually given two "sleep cycles" prior to giving a statement. The officers will be able to review their body camera video prior to giving statements.
Johnsen said he has not reviewed the video yet either.