Alamance County Sheriff

Billy Clayton

Billy Clayton is running for Alamance County Sheriff. Clayton, who graduated from Elon College in 1989, is a retired State Highway Patrol deputy commander. He is a graduate of the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy, and has been in Alamance County for 40 years. 

Clayton first decided to prepare to run in 2022 when he thought Sheriff Terry Johnson was going to retire. When Clayton realized he wasn’t, he still decided to move forward because he said he thought it was time to bring new ideas to the office.

“When it comes to public safety, there's a whole lot of dynamics that are changing across the nation, and trying to get some people in place that can bring the trust back within our communities and build some bridges for us,” Clayton said. 

One of his big priorities if elected would be improving the sheriff’s office use of technology, Clayton said. The Alamance County Sheriff’s office is currently testing the use of body cameras, but Clayton said they should have been using them for 10 years.

“We got behind the eight ball on technology right now,” Clayton said. “There's also some other camera technology, through different systems and platforms that we need to be using within our communities, out in the county, at major intersections, that will help us track criminals in any kind of movement, and that would tie us into a big criminal database.”

Clayton also said he will focus on recruiting and retention of officers. Clayton said that he expects to uphold Johnson’s recent decision to no longer accept Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees. He said he is open to working with ICE because they are a public safety entity but said that he doesn’t think they will get back in a contract to house detainees for ICE.

Johnson has been the sheriff for over 20 years, and Clayton said, if elected he would bring a new data-driven focus to the job to help set the community up for the next 10 to 15 years.

“You're going to see a more data driven, intelligence driven approach to attacking problems that way, we will never be behind the eight ball again, of not having the necessary equipment and resources we need,” Clayton said. “You're going to also see a very robust partnership with the federal and state and local partners to continue to attack in a proactive manner the problems of all crime, drugs, human trafficking.”

Dana Byrd Pasour

Dana Byrd Pasour is running for Alamance County Sheriff, but said she is endorsing Billy Clayton. Pasour, who has no law enforcement experience having been a pharmaceutical sales representative, said she doesn’t expect to be elected but is instead using her candidacy as a platform.

“I'm just calling Sheriff Johnson out for being a fraud,” Pasour said. “I voted for him three times, and I think this time, the people of this county realize that he's not everything that he says he is, and I hope my Republican brothers and sisters will discover or will start to investigate him and who he is, instead of voting for him, because he protects the statue.”

Pasour said she has been dealing with Sheriff Terry Johnson for about 10 years after a man started stalking her several years ago. Pasour said she went to the sheriff’s office more than 20 times trying to get the stalker investigated, but said she was never given a case number. 

“If I were to be elected, definitely every crime that's reported to my office, as long as I've got the man power or the woman power and the money to do it, will be investigated,” Pasour said.

Alongside increased transparency, she said that if elected, taking care of women, children and the elderly would be at the top of her priorities. 

She said she is supporting Clayton’s campaign. 

“I believe in Republican ideals, but there comes a point in time where you have to realize that not everybody with an R by their name is a good person,” Pasour said. “But at the end of the day, I really don't want to be the sheriff, and I am endorsing Billy Clayton for sheriff.”

Terry S. Johnson

Incumbent Terry Johnson is running for reelection for the position of Alamance County Sheriff. Johnson has been the sheriff since 2002. 

While in office, Johnson created many special units to target different crimes, such as the Special Victims Unit that investigates rapes, sexual assaults and child exploitations. Johnson also works with the Invictus Task Force and several other nearby sheriff departments to arrest child predators.

He has focused on going after cartel members in Alamance County and preventing the flow of drugs into the county. Johnson developed the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office Vice Division to focus on street-level drug dealers and help prevent drug trafficking. Johnson said if he were elected, he wants to continue improving the sheriff’s office’s use of technology.

“Because you look at the cartel and your organized crimes, they have a whole lot more money than the Alamance County Sheriff's Office, so they can do probably better things than we can when it comes to technology and and I'm looking forward to trying to increase our ability with technology to go after these individuals,” Johnson said. 

Johnson said he also wants to focus on developing more programs to help children know the difference between right and wrong because he doesn’t want to lose the youth to gangs.

“Right now, our parents, in my opinion, are not raising their kids,” Johnson said. “The kids are doing whatever they want to, as far as going on the computers, going on the cell phones, getting in trouble with these predators. And certainly my job, I think as sheriff, is to protect the citizens — all citizens — of Alamance County.”

Johnson said he decided to run again because he loves the people of Alamance County and that he wants to continue at least one more time. He said he would tell voters that he wants to continue working for Alamance County.

“I would ask and hope that they would be pleased with our performance and law enforcement in Alamance County, and what I would hope is that they would cast their vote for me,” Johnson said. “But even if they don't, I'm still going to work any way I can within Alamance County to see that law enforcement is enforced here in the county.”