‘Small Taste of Police Culture’ Video Brings Calls for Major Change Within Eugene Police, Initiates Investigation in Utah

“Integrity. Compassion. Courage.” The three core values of the Eugene Police Department have, once again, been proven moot by its latest scandal, which, so far, has led to former Officer Martin Siller’s abrupt resignation and the launch of an internal investigation in Utah. 

Nearly two weeks ago, on May 8, Tim Lewis — the local documentarian known for co-directing Pickaxe (1999) and bringing to light the “EPD Press Badge Scandal” of August 2025 — published a four-minute compilation video ahead of a press conference with local activists about misconduct within the EPD and the growing calls from the community he serves for Chief Chris Skinner’s resignation. 

Four Minutes and Ten Seconds

The initial footage released by Lewis features former officer Martin Siller, using derogatory and racist speech while conversing with now-identified Garrett Freir of the Grantsville Police Department in Utah on speakerphone as he drove around the Old Federal Building during the Jan. 30 anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protest. 

“There’s gas everywhere,” Siller laughingly reported over the phone. “And none of [the protesters] give a shit about illegal aliens. You know what I mean? They don’t know any.”

He then asked another unidentified officer outside the vehicle who deployed the gas. 

“I think it was, like, a BORTAC guy,” the officer responded. 

The former officer didn’t know what BORTAC was. BORTAC, or Border Patrol Tactical Unit, is one of two tactical police units within Border Patrol.

“What’s that? What is BORTAC?”

“Oh, they’re here?” Siller said when it was explained. “They’re badass.” 

Later in the video, Siller’s phone conversation switched to an unidentified coworker’s acts of domestic violence. 

“He was pretty abusive to her,” Freir said, later adding that the individual had admitted to beating his own daughter.

And then they spoke about another coworker’s acts of violence towards an ex-wife’s husband. 

At the end of the four-minute video is a racist comment about Black people going on Carnival cruises and not knowing how to swim.

Resignation

Siller resigned the following day, on May 9, but not before the Eugene Police Auditor launched an investigation into the matter. 

Chief Chris Skinner responded by releasing a lengthy statement condemning the officers’ conversation and said there was still work to be done.

“I also understand this community expects more than words and more than a resignation. Accountability must be real, and trust must be earned through action. We will continue reviewing our policies, training, supervision, and culture to ensure this kind of conduct is never tolerated inside this department.”

In his own press release, Independent Police Auditor Craig Renetzky said that, while Siller cannot be charged with misconduct following his resignation, the investigation would continue to “ensure none of the other voices heard on the video are EPD employees.”

The Full Video

On May 11, the EPD got ahead of Lewis’ then-to-be-announced press conference and released the full 23-minute video themselves, plus another nearly-15-minute recording that included additional “concerning video with offensive content.” A press conference with Chief Skinner and Police Auditor Renetzky also took place. 

One substantial new moment in the full video comes at the 8:15 mark and is an extended version of the aforementioned topic of illegal immigrants. 

“Shit, I’m married to one,” Siller said. “You’d think I would be out there.” 

The end of the video, beginning at 23:10, features an extended version of the racist conversation about Black people’s vacations. 

“Which [cruise line] do the Black people go on?” Siller asked. “Carnival?”

“No, Black people can’t. They don’t go on cruises,” Freir replied.

“They can’t swim,” Siller exclaimed. “You got to be able to swim if you go.”

The video ends with Freir’s reply.

“They like to fuck. Yeah, they like to just be grounded with their watermelon and their fried chicken.” 

Plus One More

The second video of Siller’s bodycam footage from Jan. 30 released by the EPD begins, blurred out, just after 1:30 p.m. with Siller joining another officer behind a red pickup truck. The reason is unknown. 

Soon after Siller returned to his cruiser, he turned on The Megyn Kelly Show podcast in which the namesake host was reporting on Don Lemon’s arrest. 

The video is blurred out significantly the next time around the 06:45 mark when Siller opens up the texting app on his iPhone. 

Blatantly hateful speech from the former Eugene police officer followed soon after.

“Just so you know, I’m a big supporter of ICE,” Siller said aloud as chants of “Renee Good” echoed from the recording of the protest in the Minnesota church through the cruiser’s speakers. 

One protester from the church could then be heard through the speakers saying, “Where are you? You drink your coffee, you got your jewelry, you have your nice clothes. But what do you do? What do you do to stand up for your Somali and Latino communities?” 

Siller had his own comment in response.

“Fuck the Somali and Latino communities,” he said. “I’m about the American communities. I’m about America, son. So while you’re trying to divide us further, I only care about the left-handed Somalis.”

Then he talked aloud about retiring “for a second time” and how he has “two retirements” before qualifying his career by bragging about the “pretty badass Ram truck” he owns.

The Police Press Conference

Coinciding with the abrupt release of the footage by the EPD on May 11 was a press conference from Chief Skinner and Police Auditor Renetzky that began around 2:30 p.m.

“The officer came in, essentially put his gun, badge, and props card on the desk and walked out of the organization,” the chief said. “Before we could even really fully understand the depth of what we were dealing with, he self-selected out.” 

He then identified Siller and provided a brief bio. 

Siller had joined the EPD “a little more than seven years” prior following a 20-year career in Utah. 

Police Auditor Renetzky took over the mic next. He said that the auditor’s office was ready to “bring allegations independently” when Siller resigned but that the investigation will continue. 

He further added that he had “cross-referenced those names [mentioned in Siller’s phone conversation] to a police department in Utah, known as the West Valley Police Department” and that none of the names were for Eugene employees. 

“I would just ask people to continue to be mindful of making sure that we don’t paint with a broad brush the entirety of this organization based on the idiocy of one individual on his bodycam,” Chief Skinner said when he returned to the mic before opening up the room to questions from the media.

Another asked Chief Skinner to speak to the response he has received from the community.

“Yeah, I’ll be honest with you, they’re pissed off,” Chief Skinner said. “Yeah, I mean, I don’t blame them.” 

He added:

“All we can do at this point is own our role in this. And that’s what we’re doing. We own our role in this, and yet you don’t want the entirety of the reputation of the Eugene Police Department to be shaped by one officer’s actions.”

However, it’s not just one officer. It has never been about one officer.

This is just the most recent iteration of misconduct related to racism, domestic violence, and a toxic culture. 

When pressed about the culture that exists at the EPD, Chief Skinner attempted to shift focus from the misconduct to self-policing.

“If you have somebody in the quiet moments where he thinks nobody is listening, can espouse that kind of thing, a good leader looks back and says ‘Did I have anything to do with that? Did I have anything that would have contributed to that?’” 

Skinner said he was “heartened” by Siller’s resignation, saying that he “self-selected out,” without ever mentioning that part of the discussion caught on the body camera footage was about another officer applying to other agencies while under scrutiny for misconduct. 

Nonetheless, Skinner said that he wanted to ensure that Siller would never wear the uniform again. 

As of publishing, Siller’s DPSST does show a new complaint. 

Utah

On May 12, DSM published a breaking news article about the launch of an investigation within the Grantsville City Police Department in Utah and that the officer on the other end of Siller’s phone call was Garrett Freir. 

Freir and Siller both spent 20 years with the West Valley City Police Department, also in Utah. 

Siller left first in April 2019 and was hired by the EPD within weeks. Freir retired from the department in 2023 and was hired by GCPD in 2025. 

The Culture Problem

Chief Skinner also pointed to the annual report published by the police auditor regarding the number of internal complaints received, stating that it was a good indication of the culture within the EPD that the number of complaints, especially internally, was high. 

He also said that he believed this led to Siller’s “self-selecting out,” describing that the former officer must have “felt unprotected” and that he knew what was “inevitable” upon release of the footage.

The reality is, Siller worked at the department for seven years before this “self-selecting out,” only after video of his actions was released. So, logically, Siller did feel “protected,” at least for seven years until the video became public.

Chief Skinner has repeatedly referenced a culture he says exists where fellow officers hold each other accountable by reporting misconduct.

However, at the same time, Chief Skinner said Siller didn’t have any complaints related to racism that he could point to — and therein lies the problem. 

People don’t report things they don’t believe are a problem. And much like the many individuals who see nothing wrong with Siller and Freir’s rhetoric and have been negatively commenting on social media posts calling for major change, many officers see nothing wrong with it, too.

Community members, unsatisfied with the status quo, wasted no time in voicing their concerns to the city council and Chief Skinner later that evening during the city council meeting, with many calling for the police leader’s resignation.

The Community Press Conference

On May 15, Tim Lewis, Jetty Etty, and Blair Hickok held their press conference, originally intended to release the full twenty-three-minute-long video from former officer Siller’s bodycam. 

The three wanted to ensure that Chief Skinner, armed with a well-funded PR department, wasn’t able to gaslight the community by rewriting the narrative.

“This isn’t an Eugene-specific issue,” Hickok said. 

“This is a system that has existed almost since the beginning of our country, and it hasn’t changed. Okay? Slavery was never abolished; it was just rebranded, and the police exist because of that. So, a lot of things were said on this bodycam footage. This is baseline behavior.”

Hickok added further, “This is just one small snippet of a glimpse into that dark, disgusting culture.”

Etty moved to Eugene four years ago and was instantly concerned about the police culture that existed here. She said she’s been criminalized by the system for doing things the city should be doing instead, such as feeding the unhoused, for reporting problem cops, and speaking out at public meetings.

She described the events that led up to Lewis’ arrest the night of Jan 30, and their attempts to divert traffic away from the area as law enforcement deployed chemical munitions on protesters, causing individuals to flee into the street.

“And so what did I do? I started flagging down police officers that were driving around the block over and over and asking them, ‘Please, please do something to redirect traffic.’ They literally wouldn’t acknowledge my existence. So, I called the non-emergency police line and I said, ‘Hey, can you guys please redirect traffic so nobody gets hit?’ So civilians who are driving their cars on Seventh Street who have nothing to do with the protest don’t have the trauma of hitting somebody and killing them or being gassed in their car possibly with their children in it. Then I got told, ‘we don’t have resources for that.’”

Taking matters into her own hands, Etty called Lewis and asked for help. The EPD witnessed Lewis and Benjamin Butler unloading barricades from the back of his truck. They were promptly detained and arrested.

A community member who identified as Jane joined in voicing their concerns with Siller’s footage and Skinner’s response.

“As a grand-daughter of Mexican immigrants and a victim of domestic abuse, the racist, misogynist, and violent remarks made by Officer Martin Siller are devastating, and Chief Skinner’s poor response to the incident is infuriating.

In response to the video, Chief Skinner stated, ‘All we can do at this point is own our role in this, and that’s what we’re doing. You don’t want the entirety of the reputation of the Eugene Police Department to be shaped by one officer’s actions.’ End quote. 

Now, there are two fundamental problems with that. One, issuing a statement and releasing the footage to beat these folks to the punch is damage control, not owning it. No one believes [that] and then two, no one believes the behavior of one person shapes the reputation of an entire group. But we do all know that police culture as a whole attracts those types of people and, ultimately, enhances the bigotry of the individuals within it. 

While Siller’s remarks devastated me, they did not surprise me. According to the National Center for Women and Policing, at least 40% of police officer families experience domestic abuse. 

According to Mapping Police Violence Incorporated, Black people are three times as likely than white people to be killed by police. And according to the UCLA School of Law, LGBTQ people are more likely than non-LGBTQ people to report being stopped by police, searched by police, arrested, and falsely accused of an offense. 

They also report substantial rates of verbal harassment, physical harassment, sexual harassment, and assault perpetrated at the hands of law enforcement. The data tells us that police pose an incredible threat to anyone who isn’t a straight, white, cisgender, heterosexual male. 

Historically, we know that policing originated in the 1700s, not to fight crime, but as a formal slave patrol. After the Civil War, these patrollers became the first sheriffs and deputies who enforced Jim Crow laws until the late 1960s. And centuries later, the violence against people of color has only intensified. 

The number of people killed by police has increased since the murder of George Floyd with most killings beginning with something as simple as a traffic stop or a mental health check that is then escalated by the police as we tragically saw with Eliboro Rodriguez. 

Even worse, 98% of police killings have not resulted in officers being charged with any crime. What Siller said in this video is exactly what we are seeing, is exactly what we see playing out in our communities every day. Hatred and violence towards women and people of color perpetrated by law enforcement and [with] zero accountability. It doesn’t take the bodycam footage of one officer to know that we have a bigoted police force.

I don’t have a perfect solution that will dismantle centuries of systemic violence overnight, but at the very least, I believe we must defund EPD and use those funds to fully reinstate CAHOOTS so that armed, violent, and racist officers are no longer the ones responding to people in crisis. 

This isn’t a cure all, but it is a necessary start to addressing the lethal risks of policing. And frankly, it is the absolute least that we can do. It’s time we recognize that the police force is not here to protect and serve us, but rather to uphold the agenda of the fascist regime and oppress our community into submission. And yet, even as these institutions weaponize their power against us, we will stand strong together as a community in the face of tyranny. Thank you.”

Hickok encouraged the community to continue talking about their experiences. She acknowledged that members of the local BIPOC community initially wanted to share their stories in person, but in the end were too afraid to be present that morning.

She then encouraged those present to help construct their list of demands, which included Chief Skinner’s resignation.

“I think the bad apple is Skinner. I think the bad apple is the system.”