Police Department Monitoring To Cost Wyckoff $51,000

WYCKOFF, N.J. — The Township Committee will vote Tuesday on appropriating $51,000 for legal expenses relating to the monitoring of the police department due to a racial profiling investigation by the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office.

The money has not been budgeted and state law allows the township to appropriate the money, along with three percent of the total operations budget for 2016, nearly $560,000, the resolution states. The funds will be provided for in the 2017 municipal budget.

Chief Benjamin C. Fox told his staff in an email in in 2014 that “profiling, racial or otherwise, has it’s (sic) place in law enforcement when used correctly and applied fairly.”

Capt. Timothy Condon of the prosecutor's office is monitoring the department while Fox is being investigated. Condon has the authority to train officers on the state's racial profiling policy and see that they do not engage in the practice.

Related: Wyckoff Police Chief Steps Down Amid Racial Profiling Investigation

The American Civil Liberties Union obtained a copy of the email and released it in March. Fox stepped down and was placed on voluntary administrative leave later that month.

Lt. Charles VanDyk is the acting officer in charge in Fox's absence.

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