QuickTake:

Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner said the department will work with the FBI as it investigates vandalism during the Jan. 30 protest. The federal agency also has released images and descriptions of three suspects.

FBI investigators have reached out to Eugene police for video taken during the Jan. 30 protest, later declared a riot, at the federal building.

“As a standard practice amongst all of our law enforcement partners, we have a mutual aid agreement where we assist each other in our investigations. And so this wouldn’t be any different,” Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner said in an interview.

The Eugene Police Department received a records request from the FBI for police video from Jan. 30 at the federal building, and Eugene police released the records to the FBI, according to department spokesperson Melinda McLaughlin.

Skinner said the FBI “asked us for assistance, and my sense is that we have cooperated with that particular investigation, but I don’t know specifically what we have or haven’t provided them.”

The FBI’s Portland office on Friday released videos showing windows being broken during the Jan. 30 protests and requested tips from the public to identify people involved in damaging the building.

In addition to the damaged windows, paint was also used to graffiti parts of the building. The FBI has also said rocks were thrown at law enforcement officers.

The FBI on social media also has released images of people it has identified as suspects in vandalism to the building, offering a reward up to $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of suspects.

Eugene police declared a riot Jan. 30 at the federal building after receiving a report from federal authorities of a breach of the building.

Officers from Eugene and Springfield police departments formed a line between protesters and windows, near the building’s courtyard entrance. In a statement later that night, Skinner said Eugene officers were in place to de-escalate tensions.

When federal officers arrived from Portland, Eugene police left the property, Skinner said, and federal officers then repeatedly used tear gas to disperse crowds.

FBI investigation

Eugene Weekly published a report of an FBI agent going to the home of a citizen photographer and asking if he had photos of protesters damaging the building.

Asked about concerns raised by some citizens after unconfirmed reports of the federal Department of Homeland Security creating a database of protesters opposing immigration enforcement activity — a claim recently denied by the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — Skinner said that “what they’re choosing to do with their video, you’d have to ask the FBI.”

“I have no reason to believe that they’re not doing exactly what they said they’re doing, which is investigating crime that happened that night,” Skinner said.

The FBI did not respond to questions asked Friday about its solicitation of images and video from Jan. 30 at the federal building downtown.

Skinner said he understands that among the public “there’s a high level of nervousness around a variety of surveillance footage that’s being taken.

“But the minute I start picking and choosing when I’m going to be cooperative in criminal investigations is the minute I start infusing politics into the pursuit of justice,” he said. “And I don’t have that luxury, so we investigate crimes, we help our partners investigate crimes, to the best of our ability.”

Asked if Eugene police could have legally refused to cooperate with the FBI investigation, Skinner said he thought that the department would likely have been served with a subpoena requiring it to turn over video.

Declining to cooperate with the FBI “would mean that I’m choosing to engage when I feel like we as an organization want to, and choosing not to when we don’t want to,” Skinner said. “And I think that’s a really bad practice, when we start sharing cherry-picking investigations.”