The volatile issue of immigration enforcement is a reliable point of disagreement between the two candidates who’ll square off in November over the office of Alamance County’s sheriff.
But leaving aside this perennial powder keg, there’s a fair amount of overlap between Terry S. Johnson, the county’s incumbent Republican sheriff, and his independent rival Shannon Long, who is making his political debut in November’s general election.
From their emphasis on competitive salaries to their regard for the Second Amendment, Johnson and Long have more in common than their divergent backgrounds may seem to suggest. Such similarities may simply be an outgrowth of their mutual membership in the coterie of law enforcement professionals. Yet, they occur with marked regularity in their responses to a questionnaire that this newspaper designed to tease out substantive differences between the two candidates.
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The Alamance News based this candidate survey on a similar set of interrogatories that it submitted to Johnson and two Republican rivals ahead of this year’s GOP’s primary. The latest version has been updated to include some emerging new issues like the use of Flock cameras in law enforcement. The new questionnaire also devotes plenty of space to immigration enforcement notwithstanding the sher-iff’s decision earlier this year to nix a long-standing detention agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to make room for more local inmates.
Johnson attributed his cancellation of this arrangement with ICE to a change in state law that has increased the demand for pretrial detention. The incumbent sheriff has nevertheless tried to maintain a good working relationship with this federal agency despite the controversies it has courted during the current Presidential administration’s crackdown on illegal aliens.
Although he’s no longer providing room and board for ICE’s detainees, Johnson is as emphatic as ever that immigration enforcement is a key part of crime reduction both nationally and in Alamance County.
“Illegal alien cartels, Tren de Aragua, and remnants of Sinaloa have settled in northern Alamance County,” the sheriff asserted when asked about the role of illegal immigrants in crime within his jurisdiction. “This is a major problem due to drug trafficking and related crime.”
Long, in contrast, is much less impressed by the claims that foreign elements are running amok in this part of the state.
“Official crime data does not show that undocumented immigrants are a major source of violent crime in Alamance County,” he says. “The U.S. Department of Justice and civil rights organizations state that empirical evidence linking the local immigrant community to elevated crime rates is lacking.”
[Story continues below separate questions to each candidate specific to their candidacy.]
Generally speaking, Long and Johnson both say that they’d support the enforcement operations which ICE may conduct in this area. Long nevertheless objects to having local deputies help locate suspects that the federal agency is pursuing. The challenger is, likewise, opposed to resurrecting the detention arrangement with ICE if the county increases its accommodations for inmates by revamping a former state prison farm in Graham.
When the idea is divorced from the issue of immigration, Long is open to the former prison farm’s renovation to expand the county’s detention capacity. He is also amenable to other measures that Johnson has spearheaded such as “competitive compensation” to replenish the agency’s ranks.
Long argues, however, that the sheriff’s office currently offers adequate salaries and benefits to potential recruits. Johnson doesn’t agree; nor does he concur with his rival’s assessment that the agency is adequately funded by the county’s board of commissioners.
In order to attract the best and the brightest, Long believes that the sheriff’s office should “improve workplace culture” while emphasizing things like “career development, training, fair promotion, employee recognition, and accountable leadership.” He also sees a need for greater diversity at the sheriff’s office. Johnson contends that the agency is diverse enough as it is, although he goes on to reveal his cognizance of the benefits that a diverse workforce may bring.
“While the sheriff’s office is already diverse,” he contends, “we will continue to enhance diversity with proactive recruiting to attract the best qualified applicants.”
In the potential adoption of Flock cameras, Johnson officially counts himself as a “no.” He nevertheless acknowledges that these devices “can be a useful law enforcement tool when data are properly monitored and regulated.” The note that he strikes is not all that different from Long’s more apparently amenable stance on this technology.
“They can assist investigations and locate wanted vehicles when governed by strong privacy and accountability policies,” the challenger says of these cameras. “But privacy rights must be protected by building limits into the system.”
On the subject of gun ownership, neither Johnson nor Long would support a ban on assault weapons, an increase in the state’s minimum age for firearm purchases, or the expansion of permits to buy weapons other than handguns. Both candidates are also in no hurry to legalize marijuana. Long asserts that a more permissive policy on pot is the prerogative of the General Assembly.
“I would focus on public safety,” he adds in the event that the legislative winds do blow in that direction, “address impaired driving, and enforcement against criminal misuse.”
Johnson, who had been a champion of the DARE Program in his previous life as an SBI agent, takes a much harder line on the decriminalization of cannabis.
“In my 53 years of law enforcement experience, I have found marijuana to be a gateway drug to more dangerous ones that are killing our citizens and ruining our country.”
In the final analysis, the factor of experience is perhaps the biggest difference between the incumbent Republican and his unaffiliated rival.
Johnson originally took on the position of sheriff in 2002 after roughly three decades in the employ of the NC State Bureau of Investigation. During the nearly 24 years he has held his current position, the Snow Camp native has come to embody the office of sheriff to many of his supporters, and it’s a role that he wears just as proudly as the silver star on his uniform.
“I have a track record of being tough on crime and proven leadership as sheriff,” the incumbent contends. “My ability to continue to serve as the sheriff is just as strong today, if not stronger, [than] it was when I was first elected to take office.”
Long, for his part, has a much more modest background in law enforcement. A onetime jailer and school resource officer in Orange County, the challenger stepped back from full-time police work in 2010 and since focused his time on a barbering school and a ministry that he continues to oversee. Yet, Long expresses the same sense of passion and devotion to law enforcement that the incumbent had evinced in response to the newspaper’s survey.
“People may mistake my community-centered, second-chance approach for being ‘soft on crime,” he acknowledges. “[But] my reserve status does not erase my law enforcement experience or service in schools, jails, prisons, and households across the county/state. I will lead professionally and transparently, listen first, asses the agency, make evidence-based decisions, and not [conduct] indiscriminate firings.”
The newspaper’s questions with the full responses for each candidate can be found HERE. Candidate bios also appear here: https://alamancenews.com/meet-the-candidates-for-alamance-county-sheriff-3/
For the most comprehensive local news, including local political news, you need to be reading The Alamance News each week. In this week’s (October 8) edition is candidate information and responses to questionnaires for candidates for state senate and state house. Plus a full sample ballot. Pick up a copy at local newsstands, grocery and convenience stores.
