The Dane County Sheriff’s Office through an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice will undertake several changes to ensure its services are accessible to residents who speak little or no English, The Capital Times reports.
The news follows a civil rights inquiry after nonprofit newsroom ProPublica last year reported that the Sheriff’s Office mistakenly found an immigrant worker at fault for his son’s death in 2019 on a town of Dane dairy farm. The report found that the error resulted from a language barrier between the worker and a sheriff’s deputy.
The Justice Department said it did not find evidence of discrimination in the Sheriff’s Office, which reportedly “fully cooperated” with the inquiry. The agreement stipulates that Dane County must finalize a language access policy encompassing staff training, quality controls, and outreach initiatives. It will also undergo departmental monitoring for a period.
