Alamance County sheriff details drug seizures, gang activity and staffing shortfalls in annual briefing

Sheriff Terry Johnson told the Alamance County Board of Commissioners at the board's May meeting that his office responded to roughly 89,018 calls in 2024 and is confronting increased drug trafficking, gang activity and staffing shortages.

The sheriff said the county's patrol and special units are stretched: deputies drove about 1,132,000 miles last year, the office handled about 4,972 traffic stops and patrol answered, on average, 243.8 calls per day in 2024. Johnson said his office logged 29 vehicle pursuits during 2024 and had already recorded 15 high‑speed pursuits in 2025.

"If they run from an officer first time, they go run from the officer second time, somebody's gonna get killed," Sheriff Johnson said, describing a five‑minute/ five‑mile limit his office uses to end pursuits and the use of pursuit‑intervention training to reduce harm.

Why it matters: the sheriff framed Alamance County as an attractive route for traffickers because of I‑85 and I‑40, saying cartels use secondary routes to move drugs once they ‘drop a load’ in the region. He described coordinated work with federal…