Kotzebue police officer resigns after racist Facebook comments

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.

Kotzebue Police announced the resignation of Sergeant David “Mike” Cox Thursday afternoon following an internal investigation. The announcement came just hours after KOTZ News contacted police about comments Cox made on a South Carolina law enforcement agency’s Facebook page a month ago.

According to screenshots of Cox’s now-deleted April 29 comments taken by Spartanburg, South Carolina, police, he used a variation of the N-word when referring to two black suspects in a nearby murder case.

When other commenters criticized him for making this statement as a law enforcement officer, Cox wrote, “There’s nothing wrong with telling the truth, man. It is what it is.”

At his rank of sergeant in Kotzebue, Cox’s job would have included supervising and training other police officers in a community whose population is about 85 percent non-white.

The ministry did not respond to a request for comment, but issued a statement after the KOTZ article aired on Thursday saying it was reviewing its social media policies.

In the statement, Kotzebue Police Chief Roger Rouse said the KPD “demands the highest standards of conduct from its officers both on and off duty” and takes issues of bias and prejudice seriously.