The Alamance County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO), located in
North Carolina, and under the leadership of Sheriff Terry S. Johnson, that was found by the
Department of Justice to be engaging in a pattern or practice of misconduct that violates federal laws and the
Constitutional rights of its citizens, but especially those rights of Latinos and the rural poor.
ACSO deputies target Latino drivers for traffic stops;
A study of ACSO’s traffic stops on three major county roadways found that deputies were between four and 10 times more likely to stop Latino drivers than non-Latino drivers;
ACSO deputies routinely locate checkpoints just outside Latino
neighborhoods, forcing residents to endure police checks when entering or leaving their communities;
ACSO practices at vehicle checkpoints often vary based on a driver’s ethnicity. Deputies insist on examining
identification of Latino drivers, while allowing drivers of other ethnicities to pass through without showing
identification;
ACSO deputies arrest Latinos for minor traffic violations while issuing citations or warnings to non-Latinos for the same violations;
ACSO uses jail booking and detention practices, including practices related to immigration status checks, that
discriminate against Latinos;
The sheriff and ACSO’s leadership explicitly instruct deputies to target Latinos with discriminatory traffic stops and other enforcement activities;
The sheriff and ACSO leadership foster a culture of bias by using anti-Latino epithets; and
ACSO engages in substandard reporting and monitoring practices that mask its discriminatory conduct.
