Police officer retires after farright group ties revealed

A Connecticut police officer has retired after a civil rights organization raised concerns about his membership in a farright group known for engaging in violent clashes at political rallies, a town official said Friday.

Officer Kevin P. Wilcox retired from the East Hampton Police Department on Oct. 22, according to Town Manager David Cox. That was one week after The Associated Press reported that Wilcox had been a Proud Boys member and made online payments to a group leader.

Wilcox had been an East Hampton police officer since 1999. His retirement was a “revision” of a previously planned retirement date in December, Cox wrote in an email.

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law called for Wilcox’s removal from the police department after it inquired about his social media connections with other Proud Boys members.

In September, East Hampton Police Chief Dennis Woessner told the organization that Wilcox’s Proud Boys membership didn’t violate department policies.

Kristen Clarke, the civil rights group’s president and executive director, said Wilcox’s retirement is “an important first step” but shouldn’t be the final word on the matter.

“It’s important for us to know who else he may have influenced and how his superiors failed to catch his extremist ties,” Clarke said.

Woessner described Wilcox as a “dedicated law enforcement officer.”

“There is no evidence of any racial bias in any of his policing through his entire career,” the chief said Friday.

In a letter to Clarke earlier this week, the chief said he reviewed the last 10 years of arrests made by Wilcox and found that three of the 60 arrests involved black people. Wilcox also made 21 traffic stops between Jan.1, 2017, and Sept. 13, 2019, and only stopped one black person during that period, the chief told Clarke.

East Hampton is about 20 miles (30 kilometers) southeast of Hartford. White people account for roughly 90% of its population of nearly 13,000 residents.

In a Sept. 13 letter to Clarke, Woessner said Wilcox had “stopped his association” with the Proud Boys in February, about five months before the Washingtonbased committee initially inquired about the officer’s social media connections to other group members.

The chief also confirmed that Wilcox made online payments to a group leader. The civil rights group described those publicly visible, online transactions as monthly dues that helped fund the Proud Boys’ “violent or otherwise illegal” activities.

But the chief said he reviewed the matter, received an “explanatory report” from Wilcox and closed the department’s inquiry as being “unfounded,” with no evidence to support a policy violation. Wilcox “adamantly denies being associated with white supremacists’ groups,” the chief wrote.