Editor's Note: After the story was published, Badger told WOSU he does not monetize his YouTube channel.
A Columbus police officer has been under investigation for downloading body camera footage from the city's system without submitting a public records request.
Columbus Division of Police placed Officer Spencer Badger on desk duty in May and later on administrative leave as they conducted a criminal investigation into whether he illegally downloaded videos from the Axon Body Worn Camera footage system. The investigation has since switched to an administrative investigation of his actions.
Badger later posted the videos to his YouTube channel as he has done with many other police videos.
Badger runs the Columbus Police Body Camera and Thoughts of a Police Officer YouTube pages. He was first hired by CPD in 2011.
Gov. Mike DeWine signed a bill last month hiking the potential costs for body worn camera footage and other public record videos up to $750.
Proponents of this bill pointed fingers at YouTube channels like Badger's for requesting these videos en-masse and burdening police departments. Police often have to spend time redacting the videos and editing them to make sure people's personal information does not get exposed.
Both of Badger's YouTube channels make heavy use of police body camera footage. The videos are of traffic stops, police shootings and other incidents where Columbus-area police respond.
Compared to other police video YouTube channels in Ohio, Badger's is one of the most popular on the video-sharing site. He has more than 300,000 subscribers and numerous videos that have garnered millions of views.
Badger's second YouTube channel, Thoughts of a Police Officer, is mostly a compilation of videos of Badger commenting on local and national politics.
One of Badger's recent videos consists of him defending President Donald Trump's pardon of defendants who faced charges for storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Another video involves Badger criticizing Mayor Andrew Ginther's gun buyback program.
Badger also does play-by-play analysis of police videos, including the trial of former Franklin County Sheriff's Deputy Jason Meade and the video of a former Circleville K-9 officer ordering his dog to attack an unarmed man who was surrendering to police.
Badger recently used his platform to get involved in local political squabbles between his police union and the Whitehall Division of Police.
Badger explained his motivations behind the YouTube channels in a statement to WOSU.
"I believe in transparency and holding public officials accountable when they fail to honorably fulfill their duty to the public," Badger said.
Officer Badger under investigation after he took camera footage without public records requests
WOSU requested Badger's personnel file and audio recordings of Badger's interviews with investigators from the Columbus Police Internal Affairs Bureau. Badger's file confirmed he was placed on desk duty in May last year due to an unspecified criminal investigation.
Badger was ordered to turn in much of his equipment, including his firearm and was reassigned to work at Columbus Police headquarters downtown.
CPD confirmed Badger is on administrative leave, but declined to comment due to the ongoing investigation.
Badger told WOSU that he is not on administrative leave and that he is currently assigned to Patrol Administration at CPD headquarters.
The audio recordings WOSU obtained took place between September and October. The interviewers confirmed that the investigation changed from a criminal investigation to an administrative investigation.
The interviewers said Badger made a public records request for footage from a certain incident number in June 2023, but the request did not come back as valid. This happened because Badger requested video from the wrong incident number.
The interviewers said Badger did not submit another public records request and instead opted to download the video with the correct incident number while at work to a personal device.
Badger said he didn't submit a second request because he knew the video was public record and would have been approved for distribution.
"There was nothing on it that would have been redacted, and I didn't want to make the public records unit do the same work twice," Badger said.
Badger said he didn't have permission from Columbus Division of Police Chief Elaine Bryant to post the video. Badger did this with seven to eight other videos.
Badger said he did not know that CPD directives forbade him from downloading these videos to a personal device. Another policy Badger violated forbids him from showing these recordings to unauthorized personnel.
"I didn't realize that was written in there until after I got relieved of duty. I went back and looked at the policy again and I realized that sure, that it is written in black and white. Pretty hard to miss," Badger said.
Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge President Brian Steel said in a statement the public records Badger requested should have been provided, but Badger's actions aren't excusable.
"While I am a strong advocate for transparency and the public's right to review public records, that does not excuse circumventing the procedure to obtain public records. Officers must follow CPD’s rules and directives. I am confident that will be the case moving forward," Steel said.
Officer Badger could make thousands of dollars off of videos as state tries to crack down on records requests
When DeWine signed House Bill 315 into law last month, he said in a statement the bill is aimed at curbing the cost public records requests put on police departments, especially from entities seeking to make money off of the videos.
"No law enforcement agency should ever have to choose between diverting resources for officers on the street to move them to administrative tasks like lengthy video redaction reviews for which agencies receive no compensation–and this is especially so for when the requestor of the video is a private company seeking to make money off of these videos," DeWine said.
DeWine echoed many proponents of the bill who brought up how websites and YouTube pages are requesting en-masse hundreds or thousands of body cam videos a year from police departments.
Columbus lawyer and public records expert Ryan Stubenrauch said these content creators burden police departments with their requests for hours of body cam footage.
"Most of these things are run by 20-30 somethings who understand the social media game, and they make hundreds of requests to hundreds of police departments in sort of a shotgun approach to... see how much stuff we can get," Stubenrauch said.
Stubenrauch said one of these channels being run by a police officer is a rarity.
According to vidIQ, a website that estimates the monetization value of YouTube channels, Badger is able to make a considerable sum from his videos. The website said Badger could make between $1,000 and $4,000 per month.
The website said Code Blue Cam, a much larger body camera footage YouTube page, makes between $100,000 and $300,000 a month by comparison. That YouTube channel has almost 3 million subscribers compared to Badger's 300,000.
Badger denied he monetizes his videos in a statement to WOSU Monday evening.
Channels like Code Blue Cam are who Stubenrauch views as the real problem.
"Those folks aren't from Ohio. They are people from out of state who are making hundreds, sometimes thousands of requests in a year," Stubenrauch said. "They are not interested in what happens on the body camera. They're only interested in trying to make a buck off of it."
Stubenrauch said he sees a difference between what Badger does and what larger channels like Code Blue Cam do. He said Badger requests body cam video from specific incidents whereas other larger channels put out blanket requests to fish for hundreds of hours of traffic stop videos in hopes of catching something interesting.
Stubenrauch speculated that because Badger works for CPD, he might have better knowledge about which incidents were interesting enough to request body cam footage individually.
By comparison, the biggest YouTube channel that produces body camera footage content akin to Badger's channel is the Cleveland Area Body Camera YouTube channel. That channel has a little more than half the number of subscribers that Badger does.
"It makes sense that people want to watch it and it makes sense why there's so many subscribers in a big city like Columbus, where the police see a lot of interesting things," Stubenrauch said.
Officer's video about Whitehall officer proves misleading
Badger has also used his platform to go after the Whitehall Division of Police as the department's leadership litigates an ongoing squabble with Steel and the FOP.
Badger, who is an FOP member, posted a video last month of selectively edited video of an arrest conducted by Whitehall Police Lt. Dustin Willis from 2021. Willis was also the officer assigned to investigate Steel after the FOP president allegedly vandalized Whitehall Safety Director Van Gregg's car last year.
Badger's video alleged Willis arrested a woman for shoplifting from a Walmart even though she hadn't left the store with any items. Badger has since deleted the video from his Instagram, but kept it up on YouTube.
"Every decent cop in the U.S. knows that you cannot charge someone with shoplifting if they haven't crossed the (point of sale) or attempted to conceal the items," Badger told WOSU.
Whitehall Police Chief Mike Crispen told WOSU Willis arrested the woman because she shoplifted earlier in the day from a different Walmart in Newark. Crispen said the woman had stolen so much merchandise that the case was elevated to a felony.
Once Walmart reported the woman was at a store in Whitehall, Crispen said Willis responded and arrested her. A Whitehall detective later wrote in a report that the woman committed no crime in Whitehall.
Badger's video alleges that Willis should have been fired for falsely arresting the woman, but Crispen said it leaves out the context that the woman did shoplift from a different store earlier that day. The woman was also convicted in the case.
Badger also posted a collage of Whitehall Police officers, including Crispen and Willis, in late January captioned "Whitehall Police Chief Crispen and his band of corrupt boot lickers."
Badger said he doesn't work for the FOP and has made these videos and posts independently.
Crispen still blamed Steel for Badger's video in a statement in January.
"The FOP-sponsored video omits critical facts, leading viewers to a misleading and inaccurate conclusion. Although Lt. Willis is a union member whom Steel is obligated to represent, there may be underlying tensions between them," Crispen said.
Crispen then pointed out Willis investigated Steel over the summer. Crispen did not say in his statement that the City of Whitehall declined to pursue charges against Steel.
"Brian Steel’s repeated false statements and unprofessional attacks on the Whitehall Division of Police leadership undermine trust and integrity. Yet despite our requests, the FOP Executive Board has failed to address this concerning behavior," Crispen said.
