Officials in New Hanover have opened an investigation into two of its police officers. Following last week's board of supervisors meeting, Chairman Chuck Garner confirmed municipal officials have hired a Philadelphia attorney to look into complaints filed by residents against Chief Kevin McKeon and Sgt. William Moyer.

            According to Garner, the board did not place a time limit on the investigation, which will be conducted by John P. Gonzales, identified as a shareholder in the law firm of Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin.

            "We told Mr. Gonzales to finish his work as quickly as possible and provide the results," Garner said.

            Solicitor Eric Brown confirmed the existence of the workplace investigation of the department during the Oct. 3 public meeting. However, he provided few other details, declining to mention the officers by name.

            "The board wants to be as transparent as the law will permit," Brown said, reading from a prepared statement. "The township will continue to follow the letter of the law."

            Details of the investigation, completed under the guise of personnel matters, will not become public unless the supervisors utilize its finding to take official action, according to Brown.

           Garner declined to comment on the nature of the complaints. He also refused to say if the investigation was related to information included in a Phillyvoice.com article posted Sept. 12.

            In the article, a former police officer claims members of the department made racist statements against his Asian American wife. However, Keith Youse told the story's author that the July 19 discovery of an egg roll on top of a stack of boxes piled up outside the station on North Charlotte Street – filled with his personal items – "was finally enough."

            According to the article, Youse – who worked previously with the Upper Perk Police Department – and four others identified as two fellow retired officers, a family friend who works in local law enforcement, and another friend with ties to the township's volunteer fire department "painted a picture of a New Hanover Township Police Department where racial slurs are thrown around freely and often, and intimidation rules."

            The story also claims that the supervisors and township Manager Jamie Gwynn have "turn[ed] a blind eye to what's going on, perhaps out of self-preservation or even silent complicity."

            The interviewees also claimed Moyer regularly utters the n-word, both at the station and out in public – while in uniform. The article cites one particularly troubling vignette involving comments made by Moyer after a drug warrant was served in a low-income section of the township. "In separate interviews, each officer claimed the sergeant said, aloud at District Court in Gilbertsville, that 'when that flash bang went off, those porch monkeys ran like cockroaches.'"

            McKeon, they said, regularly referred to African-Americans as "junes," short for the racial slur "June bug," the article states. One retired officer told author Brian Hickey that the chief used the "n-word" to describe the backs of the clutch pins that hold officers' collar brass in place.