U.S. DOJ reaches agreement in DSU civil rights complaint
DOVER, Del. – The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has reached an agreement with a Georgia sheriff’s office following a racial discrimination complaint that was filed by Delaware State University (DSU) last year.
The Delaware State women’s lacrosse team was on their way home from a game in Florida on April 20, 2022 when officers with the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) pulled their bus over. Officers searched the luggage of the players for narcotics in what was viewed by the university as racially discriminatory.
DSU filed a civil rights complaint with the DOJ in response. An agreement was reached with DOJ officials and the LCSO.
In May 2022, the DOJ received the complaint from DSU, a historically Black university, alleging that LCSO discriminated against its student athletes, athletic coach, and driver when it conducted a racially discriminatory traffic stop in Georgia of a bus charted by DSU.
Following the traffic stop, the University alleged that the subsequent questioning and search of the personal belongings of the primarily Black passengers, including through the use of a drug-sniffing dog, constituted unlawful race discrimination in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act (Title VI).
Title VI prohibits recipients of federal financial assistance from discriminating on the basis of race, color, or national origin. LCSO is a recipient of federal funding from the Justice Department.
DOJ officials issued a press release Monday announcing that they reached an agreement with the sheriff’s office to “modernize its policing operations and further its ongoing efforts to prevent and address discriminatory law enforcement practices.”
“Fairness and racial equity are fundamental principles for effective law enforcement, especially for those agencies that receive federal funding,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The students and staff at Delaware State University deserve policing that is racially equitable and bias-free. The agreement that we have secured with the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office will help ensure that its policing practices are free from racial bias and discrimination going forward. We will continue working to ensure that federally funded law enforcement agencies comply with our federal civil rights laws.”
Under the agreement, LCSO will review its bias-free policing policies, make necessary updates to its policies on traffic enforcement and searches, and develop and implement data collection procedures, among other provisions.
DSU issued the following statement in response to the agreement, saying in part quote: “we hope that USDOJ will closely monitor and evaluate LCSO’s compliance with the terms of the agreement and, if necessary, reopen its investigation if LCSO fails to meet its obligations.”
