Eugene Police Department officials identified Martin Siller as the officer speaking in a bodycam video posted and circulated widely this weekend. The video, which includes racist and offensive comments, was recorded during local protests in January. Siller resigned shortly after the video was posted.
Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner, right, and Independent Police Auditor Craig Renetzky, left, talk to reporters at EPD headquarters on May 11, 2026.
Brian Bull / KLCC
At a press conference Monday, Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner said Siller served with the EPD for seven years, as well as the West Valley City Police Department in Utah for 20 years. Skinner said nothing in Siller’s record previously indicated problematic behavior, aside from a few traffic issues — including a 2015 speeding violation — and the occasionally unfinished report.
In the video, Siller can be heard joking with someone on his phone about domestic violence, protesters getting gassed, abusive coworkers and making racially offensive remarks about Black people.
Skinner said there’s misinformation going around that the EPD allowed Siller to resign after the video appeared on YouTube Saturday. He said just a few hours after the video was posted to local activist Tim Lewis’ channel, Siller came into the EPD headquarters, dropped off his badge and gun, and “self-selected out” before anyone knew exactly what had happened.
“All we can do at this point is own our role in this,” Skinner said. “And that’s what we’re doing. And yet, you don’t want the entirety of the reputation of the Eugene Police Department to be shaped by one officer’s actions.”
Independent Police Auditor Craig Renetzky said a preliminary investigation started right after the video appeared. He said just because Siller resigned, they didn’t stop looking into the matter, adding that no other names heard in the video appeared to involve any current or former EPD personnel.
Renetzky added that he’ll investigate beyond the incident itself to make sure it doesn’t permeate the culture of the police force.
“We will definitely be looking at ways that EPD may have dealt with this better, if anything can be identified,” he said. “I’ve already mentioned to the chief that I think we’re gonna need to do more bias training.”
Renetzky and Skinner said the remarks heard during Siller’s phone conversation were made with some of his former Utah colleagues during the Jan. 30 protests at the federal building, which the EPD declared a riot. Competing video footage has shown both protesters and federal personnel shattering glass.
Skinner said the bodycam footage wasn’t obtained through a FOIA request, but was part of a criminal defense disclosure tied to an arrest they made that night. He added that he doesn’t know the “minds and hearts” of other police departments across the country, but he’ll work to make sure Siller no longer serves as an officer of the law.
“We’ve got officers of color and a variety of demographics represented here in this organization who are deeply offended as well,” Skinner said. “He has left not only us in a bad light with this community, but internally, I can tell you there are folks here who are equally upset.”
As to whether EPD officials could have known about Siller’s racist and offensive remarks sooner, Skinner said the bodycam footage gathered from all personnel amounts to thousands of hours that his staff doesn’t have the capacity to review.
Prior to the press conference, the EPD released a longer, 23-minute version of the video shared by Tim Lewis’ YouTube channel Saturday. They also released a 14-minute video from Siller’s bodycam recorded earlier on Jan. 30, 2026 (some visual redactions were made when Siller was covering another officer on a traffic stop. This is in accordance to Oregon law where bodycam footage must be edited to obscure the faces of all persons within the recording. - ORS 192.345 (40).)
Copyright 2026, KLCC.
Brian Bull is a reporter with KLCC. This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.
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