Wyckoff Chief Defends Racial Profiling Email

WYCKOFF, N.J. – Embattled Wyckoff Police Chief Benjamin C. Fox defended himself to township officials in an email sent the day before he was placed on leave amid an investigation into alleged racial profiling.

In an email on March 21, Fox said he was not endorsing racial profiling “for the wrong reasons.”

“You stop a minority for a legitimate reason and you might be accused of racial profiling. But, if there was a legitimate law enforcement reason, that’s good policing. It’s what the citizens demand so that we can keep them safe,” he wrote to in an email to the township administrator, the mayor and a township committeeman.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has condemned Fox’s alleged use, and endorsement, of racial profiling. Last month the ACLU released an email Fox wrote in December 2014 in which he said that, “profiling, racial or otherwise, has it’s (sic) place in law enforcement when used correctly and applied fairly.”

Fox specifically mentioned, “black gang members from Teaneck commit burglaries in Wyckoff” as a reason “why we check out suspicious black people in white neighborhoods.”

The ACLU said it received the email from an anonymous source.

Fox sent the March 21 email to Administrator Bob Shannon, Mayor Kevin Rooney, and Township Committee Rudy Boonstra. Rooney is the police commissioner and Boonstra is the deputy commissioner. In it, he explained his reasons for writing the 2014 correspondence.

“National rhetoric may be causing police officers to be afraid to do their job,” Fox said in the March 21 email. He referenced incidents in Ferguson, Missouri and “other places where there were interactions between police and citizens.” Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot and killed on Aug. 9, 2014 in Ferguson, by Darren Wilson, a white police officer. The shooting prompted violent protests that rocked the community for weeks.

“I thought that the right thing to do for the entire department was to address this with them as the chief, letting them know that they have my support when they do their job properly, and fairly, they have my support even in the face of unwarranted criticism,” Fox said in the March 21 email.

The ACLU released the email last month after it sent a complaint to the state Attorney General’s office, claiming that Fox either endorses or encourages racial profiling. The Attorney’s General’s office mailed the complaint to the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, which opened up an Internal Affairs investigation.

The state Attorney General’s Office and the county prosecutor’s office are investigating Fox.

Fox asked the Township Committee at a special meeting March 22 if he could be put on immediate administrative leave. The committee granted Fox’s request.

Fox said he “fully expect that the complaint will be deemed unfounded.” Fox also asked Shannon, Rooney, and Boonstra to keep the matter “very confidential.”

Peter Aseltine, a public information officer with the state Attorney General’s Office, would not comment on the status of the investigation. The county prosecutor’s office did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Bergen County Prosecutor Gurbir S. Grewal and Mayor Kevin J. Rooney appointed Capt. Timothy Condon to monitor and oversee the department’s daily operations and ensure the officers do not engage in racial profiling. Condon works for the prosecutor’s office.

Lt. Charles VanDyk is the acting officer in charge of the department in Fox’s absence.

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