OAKLAND — Authorities here have said little about the mid-October death of former NFL running back Doug Martin, only describing it as an in-custody death after a “brief struggle” with Oakland police officers.
The Oakland Police Department has refused to release 911 dispatch recordings that would shed more light on the moments leading up to the 36-year-old becoming unconscious, after officers found him inside one of his neighbors’ houses in the Oakland hills.
Now, OPD officials on Tuesday argued the encounter did not amount to a “critical incident,” a key threshold that would require the agency to release officer body-camera video. The OPD’s response to this news organization’s public records request for the footage came at the 45-day deadline enshrined in a state law to boost police accountability.
“At this time, the City has determined that the incident does not meet the definition of a ‘critical incident,’” read an unsigned statement from OPD, which cited AB 748, the law signed in 2019. “Therefore, the mandatory disclosure provisions applicable to critical incidents do not apply.”
The refusal to release the footage drew an immediate rebuke from First Amendment and police accountability advocates, who questioned the police department’s lack of transparency in the case, but acknowledged the department might not have to release the videos.
AB 748 defines “critical incidents” as instances when officers fire their guns, or when “the use of force by a peace officer or custodial officer against a person resulted in death or in great bodily injury.”
“Transparency is the oxygen of accountability,” David Loy, legal director of the First Amendment Coalition, said. “The public has an overwhelming interest in how the government does their job, especially how police officers do their job. Even if they’re not legally required to release it, there’s no reason I believe they should not release the video.”
Few facts have been publicly released six weeks after Martin’s death.
Shortly after 4 a.m. on Oct. 18, multiple people called 911 as Martin banged on his neighbors’ front doors and wandered through the backyards of houses on the 11000 block of Ettrick Street. The former running back for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Oakland Raiders had been staying in a longtime family home on the block, which rests in the Oakland hills near the Oakland Zoo.
Police initially received a call about a person breaking into an occupied home on Ettrick Street. They “simultaneously” received notice that a person believed to be a burglar was having “a medical emergency,” according to a statement released at the time by the OPD.
A “brief struggle” with Martin ensued when officers contacted him inside a house and tried to detain him, police said. Martin then became unresponsive after being taken into custody, according to Oakland police. Police have not described the nature of Martin’s “struggle” with an unknown number of officers who haven’t been identified, whether he said anything to them and the length of time he spent in custody before falling unconscious.
The Alameda County Coroner’s Office has not completed Martin’s autopsy.
His brain is expected to be preserved and examined by neurologists for evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. Several families of deceased NFL players have taken the same steps to determine if repeated hits to their loved ones’ heads caused a disease that can only be determined after death but has been found in hundreds of former NFL players in recent years and, at times, linked to severe mental illness.
Martin’s family — who have spent the week preparing for Martin’s memorial service, scheduled for Thursday — declined to comment. It is unclear if his family was allowed to view the body-camera footage.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Doug Martin (22) walks off the field after a staggeringly successful day against the Oakland Raiders in an NFL football game, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2012 at O.co Coliseum in Oakland, Calif. Martin rushed for 251 yards and four touchdowns, as the Buccaneers won, 42-32. (D. Ross Cameron/Staff)
Born in Oakland, Martin grew up playing football and was a star at St. Mary’s in Stockton, before spending four years at Boise State, where he left in 2011 as the third-leading rusher in program history. His 2012 rookie season in Tampa Bay was his most productive as a pro. The back nicknamed “Muscle Hamster” for his eagerness to take on physically taxing assignments rushed for 1,454 yards and 11 touchdowns that season, earning his first of two career Pro Bowl appearances.
His NFL career was also marred by injuries and off-field challenges. In 2016, Martin was suspended four games for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy after testing positive for a banned substance. He later sought treatment and publicly expressed regret, vowing to rebuild his health and reputation.
He quietly retired after the 2018 season and had lived a private life until the fall encounter with Oakland police.
His death also came as the OPD — which has been under federal court-ordered monitoring for two decades — has faced renewed scrutiny over its transparency.
Just days before Martin’s death, the police department began encrypting its radio channels — a decision that proved deeply controversial, given how those radio feeds had been open for decades while providing a key window into crime across the city. Because of the switch, the public could not listen in or review the 911 calls, and the police’s response.
When OPD joined other East Bay agencies in silencing the radio feeds, Oakland City Administrator Jestin Johnson vowed to make his city’s police conversations easily available to the public. In a late-August statement, Johnson stressed that “we also need to maintain transparency and accountability to the public” amid the push for encryption, while adding that “we are committed to making sure when there are requests for this information that the department is responsive.”
He also promised to “prioritize requests from news media to ensure timely release of those records to reporters covering Oakland.” But the city has refused to release the recordings.
Civil rights attorney Jim Chanin, a lead attorney in the landmark Riders case of the early 2000s that forced the OPD into federal oversight, said he saw no reason to withhold release of the body-camera footage, regardless of whether it fell under the purview of AB 748.
“I have the point of view that when in doubt, release it,” Chanin said. “And that’s my point of view in this case.”
If officers acted within the bounds of department policy, then the videos could help show that, added Loy, of the First Amendment Coalition.
“That’s precisely what people have the right to decide for themselves,” he said.
Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.