Charlotte officer did not activate body cam until after Keith Scott was shot
Evidence in the Keith Scott shooting is not available because of an officer involved failed to activate his body camera, which violates department policy.
Evidence in the Keith Scott shooting in Charlotte, North Carolina, is not available because one of the officers involved failed to activate his body camera, which violates department policy.
The police department released two videos late Saturday after days of protests demanding far more transparency in the case. Neither video, however, is conclusive enough to determine if Scott was armed or not.
On one of the body cameras, the first 30 seconds are completely silent, making it impossible for investigators and the public to determine what happened immediately prior to the Sept. 20 shooting.
The officer, who has not been identified, did not turn on the camera until after the shooting, when the audio begins, reports the Washington Post.
The body cameras, created by Taser, come with a “buffer” function. When a camera is turned on, it saves only the 30 seconds of non-sound video filmed before an officer “activates” the camera. Audio is not recorded until the moment an officer manually activates the camera by double-tapping it.
The department has declined to identify the officer who took the body camera footage. It appears he is the same officer whose dash camera captured footage of the shooting.
