Chief says officer who resigned after racist remarks worked 7 years for Eugene police

The former Eugene police officer whose body-cam video captured racist remarks about Black people had worked for a little more than seven years as a patrol officer in Eugene, Chief Chris Skinner said in a news conference Monday, May 11.

Martin Siller, who resigned Saturday, joined the Eugene Police Department after working 20 years as a police officer in Utah, Skinner said.

Siller can be heard speaking while driving a patrol vehicle in a video posted Friday by Eugene documentarian Tim Lewis to his YouTube account.

Eugene police Monday released a longer, unedited version of the video.

In a phone conversation about options for cruise vacation travel, Siller can be heard asking, “Which ones do the Black people go on, Carnival?” A person speaking on the other end of a phone conversation begins to respond, with Siller then remarking, “They can’t swim. You got to be able to swim if you go.” The person responds: “They like to just be grounded with their watermelon and fried chicken,” with the video cutting off abruptly at that point.

The community has reacted angrily, Skinner said.

People are “pissed off,” Skinner said. “I don’t blame them.”

“You don’t want the entirety of the reputation of the Eugene Police Department to be shaped by one officer’s actions. But we know that that’s fresh,” Skinner said.

In a written statement Saturday, Skinner said the video showed the officer “using racist and deeply offensive language.” Eugene police Saturday said the officer had resigned, but did not name him at that time.

At Monday’s news conference, Skinner went on to say the department will “be as transparent as we possibly can,” and explained Siller’s resignation.

“There is some information out there to suggest that we let him resign,” Skinner said. “That’s not true. The officer came in, essentially put his gun, badge and process card on the desk and walked out of the organization before we could even really fully understand the depth of what we were dealing with.”

A review of stops conducted by Siller in his role as a Eugene patrol officer found no evidence of bias in his policing, Skinner said, explaining that he reviewed traffic stops conducted by the officer when he was not responding to calls from a dispatcher.

“This particular individual, over the course of seven years, stopped 100 cars. He averaged 15 stops a year,” Skinner said. Officers must fill out demographic information with such stops, “and there was nothing to indicate that with his unobligated time, he was trying to disproportionately affect members of our community,” Skinner said.

The department reported Siller to Oregon’s Department of Public Safety Standards and Training to have Siller’s certification reviewed, Skinner said.

“My focus right now is to make sure this guy’s never a police officer again,” Skinner said.

Also at Monday’s news conference, Eugene Police Auditor Craig Renetzky said a preliminary investigation opened by his office after becoming aware of the video is ongoing. In Eugene, the police auditor position is independent of the police department and reports to the City Council.

The investigation’s scope has included whether other Eugene police officers took part in what Renetzky described as a phone conversation captured in the bodycam video. In the video, the names of several individuals can be heard.

Some of the conversation appears to reference domestic violence involving the people named.

But Renetzky said that he “cross-referenced those names to a police department in Utah known as the West Valley Police Department.”

“I’m confident at this point that the misconduct was from an EPD officer talking to former colleagues,” Renetzky said.

Siller’s resignation means that no allegations can be brought forward against the former officer, Renetzky said.

Skinner, asked about follow-up, said he wanted to hear from officers about interactions with Siller.

“We don’t want folks to believe that they’re being accused of anything. But we do want the feedback,” Skinner said.

“Was there an indicator that this guy held these beliefs? If the answer to that is yes, then my next question is, then you have a duty to report,” Skinner said. “And then that speaks to the culture, right? That speaks to whether or not people knew he was like this and chose not to say anything. And that’s the piece that we will continue to work on and trying to identify if that existed.”

Renetzky also said he would review any such information brought to the auditor’s office about any misconduct by others.

“We want to know if there’s been any sort of further involvement,” he said.

Renetzky said his office would pursue a misconduct investigation should an officer have heard comments like those at issue from Siller and not stepped forward.

“They’re obligated to, they’re expected to do so, and if they didn’t, then I’m going to have a serious problem with that.”

Skinner said there’s anger, too, within the department about Siller’s remarks.

“Officer Siller not only managed to offend a big portion of our community that day, but he also offended a big portion of this organization, too. We’ve got officers of color and a variety of demographics represented here in this organization that are deeply offended as well,” Skinner said.

A message requesting comment sent to a LinkedIn account associated with a person named Martin Siller working for the West Valley City Police Department was not immediately returned.

The body-cam video was not released in response to a public records request, Skinner said, but instead shared by the department as part of an ongoing criminal case. The recording was made Jan. 30, the night Eugene police declared a riot at the Eugene Federal Building during a protest.

“There’s a small part of me that feels a little fortunate that this happened, where we were actually able to capture, kind of the heart of this officer and be dealing with this,” Skinner said. “And but for that body-cam being on, we may not even know he existed in our ranks.”