The city of Columbus has fired a city police officer who downloaded body camera footage from the city's system without submitting a public records request.
On Tuesday, Public Safety Director Kate Pishotti upheld Police Chief Elaine Bryant's recommendation to terminate Officer Spencer Badger after a Monday hearing.
In a statement Tuesday, Pishotti said that Badger admitted to "improperly and repeatedly downloading law enforcement materials to a personal device."
Pishotti said Badger's actions violated the law and Columbus Division of Police policy.
"This is no simple mistake or one-time oversight. It is critical misconduct," Pishotti said.
Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge No. 9 said the union will take the case to arbitration. In a statement, Union President Brian Steel said that while Badger's action were a policy violation, the termination was an "excessive punishment."
"His efforts to bring an inside view of policing to the community and often positive interactions have been widely recognized across the country," Steel said in the statement.
The police division placed Badger on desk duty last May and later on administrative leave as they conducted a criminal investigation into whether he illegally downloaded videos from the Axon body camera system.
Badger posted the body cam 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.
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 responded.
Badger was hired by CPD in 2011.
