Cleveland County sheriff: English should be requirement for getting NC driver’s license

Cleveland County Sheriff Alan Norman thinks legislation is needed to require people to speak English before they are issued a driver’s license.

Deputies on Tuesday arrested three men and a woman in a truck traveling northbound on Interstate 85. Authorities said the vehicle was weaving and running off the road.

After searching the truck and a 35-foot enclosed trailer, deputies found 75 pounds of marijuana along with 0.4 grams of heroin and other drugs, Norman said.

Only one of the men arrested spoke fair English, Norman said on Thursday. Another spoke broken English and the others spoke only Chinese.

While authorities found no weapons and the suspects offered no resistance, Norman said the two people who spoke English “were not a great help to officers.”

Cleveland County deputies have had earlier encounters with more than one person in a vehicle who spoke no English. When they conversed among themselves, “you don’t know what their next move will be,” he said. “Often it could be an extremely volatile situation. It’s a law enforcement nightmare.”

Norman said Cleveland County officers have been “extremely lucky” in such situations, but he felt compelled to speak up about the potential danger.

“I wanted to put it in the forefront, hopefully to gain support of other local law enforcement agencies,” he said. “Maybe it’ll grab the attention of some congressman. In North Carolina we have individuals in place who’d gladly pass the legislation, but it needs to be U.S.-wide to be effective.”

Lincoln County Sheriff David Carpenter thinks such legislation “would definitely help our situation, because we don’t have the ability to have many bilingual officers in a small department.”

Two of those arrested on Tuesday had driver’s licenses issued in California, and the others had licenses issued in New York and Texas. Norman said that after the arrests, the suspects were placed on hold while their legal status was investigated. All were charged with drug trafficking. Three of the four were wanted in other states on charges including traffic violations and fraud, Norman said. They were being held in the Cleveland County Detention Center on $500,000 secured bond each.

The arrests were a joint operation with the Department of Homeland Security and the sheriff’s offices in Iredell, Davie and Rowan counties. All are members of the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office Community Interdiction Team and come together occasionally to work eight-hour shifts.

Norman said the team effort takes narcotics off the street, and the sale of confiscated vehicles is divided among the sheriff’s offices.

“It’s a win-win for the agencies and the community,” he said.

This story was originally published December 18, 2014 at 4:03 PM with the headline "Cleveland County sheriff: English should be requirement for getting NC driver’s license."