Community Members Demand EPD Chief Skinner’s Resignation at City Council Meeting

The Eugene City Council met for its regular session on May 11 and, expectedly, the recent release of former Eugene Police Department Officer Martin Siller’s bodycam footage featuring racist and derogatory language during a phone call with Garrett Freir, a Grantsville City, Utah police officer and former coworker, was the main topic of the evening.  

Notably, the meeting was not in compliance with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act as the TVs in the room and the YouTube livestream did not include closed captions.

While there were many commonalities between public comments, one stood out above the rest: community members want to see Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner resign. 

The City Council

Mayor Kaarin Knudson started the meeting off as any other before reading aloud a previously released statement regarding the footage.

Councilor Matt Keating was the next member to speak about the footage. He thanked both Chief Skinner and Independent Police Auditor Craig Renetzky “for their swift and transparent response,” said he applauded the notion that the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards revoke Siller’s statewide certificate, and called for “additional implicit bias training.” 

Councilor Mike Clark was next and was reticent as usual, opting to say that he “absolutely in every way and in every word” agreed with what both Mayor Knudson and Councilor Keating had said. 

Then Councilor Greg Evans — who was, initially, almost overlooked by the mayor — spoke about the “cultural problem” within the EPD and his own experiences of racial misconduct by the department. He said, in full: 

“Thank you, mayor, and I want to thank you, Councilor Keating, Councilor Clark for the, you know, supportive words that you’ve given. It’s really important with regard not only to this incident, but with regard to the relationship that communities of color have, or I should say have not had, with the Eugene Police Department for many years.

And one of the reasons why we have the system in place that we have — we have a police auditor that’s independent, [who] is hired by this body and reports back to this body about police misconduct and misbehavior and other issues that our citizens are engaging with our police department. We also have a police commission which we’ve had for years to review policy and procedures, and we have a [Civilian Review Board] which were all established, the police auditor and Civilian Review Board were established in the 90s, when similar issues came up around police misconduct and police misbehavior in Eugene.

What I want to say is that I know a number of police officers in Eugene who are totally appalled by what happened over this weekend with that one officer. And I will say that that should not characterize this police department. 

But the problem is that after viewing the tape evidence and the other audio evidence of the incident, and I understand there’s other evidence that will be emerging as the investigation moves forward, that we have a cultural problem in the Eugene Police Department, and it’s been there for years. 

And when I say that, I say that, with having lived here for 40 years and [having] had positive and negative experiences in police stops and other things, and understanding that one of the only reasons why I was stopped [was] because I was driving and Black.

The first time I was never stopped by the police in my life was in Eugene. And I was walking down 13th Street, and it was the third day that I was here.

And so I will tell you. that I’ve had a number of conversations since Saturday with people throughout the community. African Americans and others, and people who are relaying to me, and have over the years, their incidents with police engagement that have either been inappropriate or just downright unacceptable. And a lot of this stuff was based on race and ethnicity.

And I know that some of my colleagues and other folks in the community may have some difficulty around articulating this. But trust me, I have no problem articulating this. And if you’ve known me since I’ve lived here for the last 40 years, you know, we have had to deal with this, not only with ourselves ,personally, it doesn’t matter what status or what level you are in a community, whether you are an administrator or you’re just somebody on the street, we all have issues, you know, with the police department. And we need to have a significant change in culture as Councilor Keating pointed out. We need more, you know, folks need more training. But we also need to examine how people get hired, [get] through a significant screening process to be able to feel comfortable, while in uniform, on the job, in a police vehicle, wearing a gun, to be able to say what this ex-officer said and sit there and laugh and giggle. Not only about racist things, but about beating other people up.

It’s, you know, some of the misogynistic things that came out of that, it makes it so that, people, [as] it was expressed to me today, we don’t feel safe when we call the police.

And so, I will say this to you — we have to rely on the police. Somebody’s breaking into my car, I’m calling the police. You’re breaking into my house, I’m calling the police. I’m not calling Ghostbusters. They don’t exist despite what some of you might think. But I’m calling the police, and I’ve had family, my family, police officers, you know, my cousin taught me how to hold a gun.

And I understand police work to a large extent. It’s not what you see on The Rookie or [9-1-1] or any of that. Nobody’s jumping out of the car chasing people down the street every day. My cousin was a police officer in Washington, D.C. for 31 years and he never drew his gun once.

So let’s get real. This is not about television. This is not about silly stuff that you see on CNN or Fox or whatever news channel you turn into. This is real life. This is what people have been going through in this country since the last 400 years. And the fact that this is not an indictment of the Eugene Police Department per se, it’s [an] indictment for our entire community that we have allowed this to go on, knowing what we know about the history of people who have engaged in inappropriate activity and illegal activity under the color of law.

It happens throughout the state, throughout this country, and it needs to stop now. And I am committed, I’ve been here for 40 years, and so I draw my last breath — We are going to make a significant change in this community and we’re going to turn the ship the right way, not the wrong way.”

The Police Auditor

Then, before the councilor transitioned to the consent calendar portion of the meeting, Independent Police Auditor Craig Renetzky approached the council and gave a statement covering the timeline of events, such as he had during the press conference earlier in the day. He ended his statement by asking the community to come forward with their own reports of misconduct. 

During his statement, Auditor Renetzky reiterated that the auditor’s office is independent from the police department and that they report directly to the city council.

Further, he explained that, since Siller had resigned, allegations of misconduct could no longer be brought to him, specifically, but that the investigation would continue to ensure no other employees with the City of Eugene were involved. 

As such, Auditor Renetzky said he had confirmed that the officer on the other end of the phone call was from Utah and that the office has zero jurisdiction outside of Eugene. 

Going forward, he said that this investigation is a top priority for the office and that they “will examine the EPD as a whole to identify any steps or changes that can be taken to ensure that members of the community are served by officers that have the type of ethics, morals, and character that the citizens of Eugene and the Members of our community deserve and expect.”

The council then transitioned to the consent calendar.

The Community They Serve

More than two dozen community members — including activists and community leaders — spoke about the footage during the meeting’s public comments in-between countless interjected reprimands from Mayor Knudson about meeting decorum. 

Many directly called for Chief Skinner — who was practically hiding in the back of the room with other EPD staff he arrived with, including Deputy Chief Jake Burke, Officer Patrick Willis, and Officer Michael Klews — to immediately resign. At one point, community member Ken Willis, pointed him out and confronted him. 

“Chris, Jake. Why don’t you come up here and face everybody with the criticism instead of hiding in the back,” he asked to no response. 

One community member, Kevin Cronin, listed many of the EPD’s scandals during Chief Skinner’s tenure. 

“Yesterday, Officer [Corbin] Sagmiller told me not to worry. Eugene has the highest standards of any police department in the country,” Cronin said. “I say tonight, we review Chris Skinner’s tenure and see if he’s meeting those standards.”

Cronin continued, reading the list he prepared:

“[Chief Skinner] started April 30th, 2018 — eight years ago.

Following the former EPD officer catching a child pornography charge in 2017, Skinner told us he would bring a culture change to EPD.

Culture starts with leadership. Currently, EPD has zero women in leadership above sergeant. And currently, the culture is one of a casual attitude about women, and their lives, and then the people that we serve.

September 2018, an officer resigned when a woman complained to the auditor’s office about a sexual relationship with him. 

2019, Officer Tykol shot and killed Eliborio Rodriguez while he was collecting cans. Tykol lacked probable cause. Tykol was promoted to sergeant. He hires and trains new officers.

2020, while on duty, Officer Drumm followed up on a domestic violence victim, visiting her home and raping her twice, the second time at gunpoint. He pleaded guilty.

2021, Wes Darling resigns after being accused of rape.

2023, Judson Watson was found to send inappropriate photos, make unwelcome comments, inappropriately touching one of his coworkers. All eight claims of misconduct were substantiated.

2024, Officer Cardwell told KVAL that a sergeant continued inappropriate behavior with her for four months after she asked to be removed.

2024, Joshua West was arrested and charged for domestic violence and strangulation of his girlfriend.

2025, The ‘Flock Fiasco.’ It’s clear that after eight years at the helm, Skinner has failed to change the culture at EPD. Your only leverage over the police is to fire the chief. It’s time to pull that lever.”

Tim Lewis, the Eugene documentarian who released the bodycam footage, also spoke and described the thought process he went through in deciding to do so. He said:

“When I was trying to make a decision on releasing the 23-minutes, or the four-minute video, it took me about a week and a half to two weeks to figure that out. I struggled with it, I talked with people, talked with friends, talked to my attorneys. Because, frankly, I sort of felt for this officer because he was being thrown under the bus, because it’s a culture that I said in this video. It’s just a small taste of police culture, and that’s not unusual, like you heard from Kevin right here, all the different things that have gone on.”

Before concluding, Lewis announced that his own press conference would take place on Friday, May 15 at 10 a.m. with the location still to be announced. There, he said he plans to bring together community members to share their own experiences of Eugene police misconduct. 

The public comments got shaken-up when Andrew Becker began to speak. Instead of direct criticism, Becker chose to use analogies about Chief Skinner’s tenure: 

“I’d like you to think if there was like a babysitting agency of, you know, like 200 employees, and they had committed as many rapes and murders as the EPD has under Police Chief Skinner, would you hire that babysitting agency to babysit your kids,” Becker asked the council.

Then another analogy: “If you know, if you know a different city department, you know, the sanitation department had raped and killed as many people, would you keep the sanitation department head or get rid of them?”

Another community member, Sarah K., raised new allegations of misconduct in the form of private donations to the police before also calling for Chief Skinner’s resignation. She said, in full: 

“I have worked in six states, and I’ve worked alongside cops in 5 of those states. I have never come across a police force that allows, and encourages, businesses to give them donations. Donations are bribes.

Donations encourage the police to show up consistently at a local business, consistently, predictably, constantly, in uniform with their patrol cars. Never in my life have I seen this Tacoma, Seattle. They don’t even allow for discounts to be given to police officers. and you know that they’re doing this. You know that Skinner is doing this because you’ve talked to him about taking stuff out of his budget that he’s getting donations for. He sent officers into local businesses to ask for receipts that he can gerrymander to make it look like you’re paying for those things that he’s getting donations for, so that his budget remains intact. Skinner has to go.”

Future events at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field were also brought up. 

Holly Graves told the council it no longer felt safe to invite people to the city ahead of the return of the World Athletics’ Championships in August.

“If that officer was comfortable saying that, who knows what the officers are comfortable saying when their cameras are not on, when they are among themselves and themselves only,” Graves said about the bodycam footage. “As others have said clearly, there seems to be no haste to get something meaningful done other than allowing these officers to resign before they bring trouble to the rest of the EPD.” 

Several community members said that they were speaking to the city council for the first time, including the president of the Eugene-Springfield chapter of the NAACP, Demond Hawkins.

He said he was “very disappointed” by what he had seen but wasn’t “surprised about that as an African-American man” and added that the actions in the video are something he had grown up with. In response to it, Hawkins wants accountability. 

“If [Siller has] been here for seven years, there had to be people that knew what he was doing and how he was talking,” he said. 

Hawkins also highlighted that not enough people had called out the conversation surrounding domestic violence in the recording and the praise for those tear-gassing anti-ICE protesters outside the Old Federal Building. 

“That shows that his values really [weren’t] with his job that he stands for,” Hawkins said. “So there is something that needs to be looked at [in] our police department.”

Chloe Longworth — whose lawsuit with Anna Lardner against the federal government — brought a prop for her public comment: a large printed photo of both Eugene and Springfield police “guarding the fence [around the Old Federal Building] as it is being put up.” 

Longworth did not hold back, going as far as to refer to Chief Skinner and the two other officers in the back corner as “little Nazi supporters.” 

Speaking about policing culture and its origins, Longworth said the system isn’t flawed because it is instead working as intended. 

“It is not flawed in any way whatsoever, because the police originated from a Nazi-style system. They were originally slave catchers,” she said. “What makes anyone in this room think that they’re going to be any different now?”

About the “randomness” of the bodycam footage, Longworth said:

“That was 20-minutes of ‘random’ accidental bodycam footage in a ‘random’ car. This is not a one-off incident. Obviously, if this was accidental, then that means that this is happening all the time, and we just happen to see it. Wow, what a freaking surprise!”

Another community member, Levi Simmons, spoke about his perspective as “white-presenting in Oregon” as a son of a Lakota mother:

“I was appalled by this video, and as a former former Army medic, I’m appalled by the treatment and callous callous words used in this department, and as a former military member.

I’ve seen what culture can do to a unit and how it can destroy a unit’s integrity. I would like to see our police do better. And I would like to see some real accountability. So far all I’ve heard is talk. Thank you.”

So what happens next? 

Siller’s credentials with the DPSST have been updated to show he resigned, but as of date there are no current open misconduct cases in his name on the state’s website. Freir, the Grantsville police officer at the other end of Siller’s phone call, are also currently under investigation in Utah. As for whether or not Skinner will resign, only time will tell.