The release of Officer Adam Coy’s body camera footage is raising a lot of questions.

So, NBC4 went to the Columbus Division of Police to get answers on department policies pertaining to officers and their body worn cameras and providing medical aid.

Roughly 60 seconds into the 13-minute recording released by police on Wednesday, you see Officer Coy lift his left hand to turn on his body camera. That’s when the audio kicks in as well.

So, when is an officer supposed to turn on their body worn camera?

In the department’s directive, under the Policy Statements portion, in Section G, it says, “sworn personnel should activate their body worn camera when dispatched, or upon a self-initiated response, to a priority 1 or priority 2 call.”

They should also activate their camera, “at the start of an enforcement action or at the first reasonable opportunity to do so.”

Under the same section, department policy states personnel should, “activate their cameras when an encounter becomes adversarial, or its use would be appropriate and/or valuable to document an incident unless otherwise prohibited.”

In a news conference on Wednesday, Mayor Andrew Ginther condemned Coy for not turning on his camera sooner.

“Once it went just for a call for service for a noise dispute and there was an engagement with an individual, that I believe is the policy and procedure of division of police and that’s what they’re in violation of,” Ginther said.

Section H of the same directive advises sworn personnel wearing body cameras to, “announce they are recording as close to the start of the encounter as possible unless it’s unsafe, impractical or unnecessary.”

Though we don’t hear Coy announce he’s recording when audio kicks in, the directive’s Section I requires personnel to, “continue recording until ordered or permitted by a superior to stop,”
which Coy did follow after the shooting.

But Coy, and other officers, have also been criticized for not rendering medical aid to Hill as he lay wounded on the garage floor. A failure that on Wednesday Mayor Ginther called “disturbing” as he watched the video.

NBC4 also wanted to know whether or not Coy broke protocol by failing to provide medical aid to Hill. Here’s what the department’s directive states:

Under rule 1.08, Section A, Number 6, the directive states, “personnel shall render appropriate aid and/or summon emergency medical services for individuals injured, unconscious, or in medical distress as *soon as it’s reasonable and safe to do so.”

While Officer Coy did call for medical assistance, neither he or the other officer at the scene took any precautionary action. A Columbus Police Department representative told NBC4 that discussions have already taken place with Chief Tom Quinlan about addressing the language in the directive.

As Chief Quinlan announced Thursday afternoon, he was taking the steps to terminate Officer Coy.

Quinlan stated that Officer Coy, “violated his oath to comply with the rules and policies of the Columbus Division of Police. A violation that cost an innocent man his life.”