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.
