|By Helen Eckinger, Sentinel Staff Writer
FRUITLAND PARK — A city police officer has resigned after allegations surfaced that he was a “district Kleagle” and “staff sergeant” in the Ku Klux Klan.
James Elkins, 28, resigned Jan. 20 after the Police Department launched an internal investigation when it received information that Elkins was distributing fliers in Sumter County promoting the Klan, police Chief J.M. Isom said Friday.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office also received photos earlier this week that show Elkins dressed in KKK gowns and hoods. Isom confirmed that the pictures are authentic.
Elkins, who could not be reached for comment, initially denied that he was involved in the Klan and said that a Sumter post-office box that he was allegedly using to send and receive KKK literature was being used by a friend. But postal officials told investigators Elkins was the only person who had used the box and that he had received mail from a national Klan organization there. When Elkins learned that investigators had visited the post office, he resigned, Isom said.
In his resignation, Elkins made no mention of his ties to the Klan and said that he felt injuries he suffered in a car crash in late 2007 prevented him from being a fit police officer, Isom said. Elkins had been on leave and receiving workers’ compensation after the crash, and Isom had recently designated him as a reserve officer.
Elkins worked for the Fruitland Park Police Department off and on for four years, Isom said. He also worked for the Wildwood Police Department briefly in 2006. No evidence of racial profiling has turned up in any arrests Elkins made or traffic citations he issued, officials said.
Elkins told Isom his activities with the KKK occurred while he was on leave. The Lake Sheriff’s Office received a copy of a certificate earlier this week dated 2006 that allegedly commemorates Elkins’ joining the KKK, as well as a letter dated April 2007 that names Elkins the “district Kleagle” of the National Aryan Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. According to Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, a “Kleagle” serves as a recruiter for a KKK chapter.
Isom said no other Fruitland Park officers were involved in the Klan with Elkins.
“I can guarantee you that none of my police officers who work here are members of the KKK,” Isom said.
Potok said that while the number of Klan groups, like hate groups in general, has increased in recent years — largely because they’ve focused their efforts on targeting illegal immigrants — the group is “a relatively small part of the American radical right.”
He said his organization knows of four Klan chapters in Florida — in Ocala, Silver Springs, Homosassa Springs and Englewood. The Sunshine State tends to have one of the highest number of KKK groups in the country, largely because North and Central Florida can be considered part of the Old South, and because of the state’s large immigrant population, Potok said.
Reports of law-enforcement officers being Klan members are rare — Potok said he hears about one a year. And if those officers are let go — Isom said he would have fired Elkins if he hadn’t resigned — their efforts to gain legal recourse are usually in vain, Potok said.
“The case law is very strong on this,” he said. “There is an obvious conflict of interest. . . . The public has a perfectly reasonable suspicion that a police officer who is a member of the Klan will not treat certain people well.”
