Editor’s note: This story contains an image of a racist statement that may be offensive to some readers.
A Kotzebue police sergeant has resigned after making racist comments on social media.
The Kotzebue Police Department announced Sgt. David “Mike” Cox’s resignation Thursday afternoon, following an internal investigation. The announcement came only hours after KOTZ News reached out to the department about the comments Cox made a month ago on a Facebook page operated by a South Carolina law enforcement agency.
According to screenshots of Cox’s now-deleted April 29 comments taken by Spartanburg, S.C. police, he referred to two Black suspects in a nearby murder using a variation of the N-word.
When other commenters challenged him for making that statement as a law enforcement officer, Cox wrote, “(N)othing wrong with speaking the truth man, it is what it is.”
At his Kotzebue rank of sergeant, Cox’s job would have involved supervising and training other law enforcement officers in a community that is about 85% non-white.
The department did not respond to a request for comment, but issued a statement after KOTZ’s story aired Thursday saying that it is reviewing its social media policies.
Kotzebue Police Chief Roger Rouse said in the statement that KPD “holds officers to the highest standards of conduct on and off duty” and takes matters of bias and prejudice seriously.
