The sheriff of a small northwest Missouri county is under scrutiny after former deputies alleged he ordered them to stop making drunken-driving arrests, a claim he denies. The dispute surfaced this week alongside records showing the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office has had no DWI cases move into the court system since April 16, even as other agencies reported arrests in the same period.
Why it matters: The stop-and-start around DWI enforcement touches public safety in a county of fewer than 8,500 residents where two-lane highways and rural bar routes cut through farmland. Former deputies say Sheriff William Jewell McCoy discouraged arrests, undercutting road patrols and leaving cases to the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Carrollton Police Department. McCoy says that’s not true and that deputies bring in impaired drivers when they find them. Mothers Against Drunk Driving’s Missouri office says it opened a review after fielding complaints. Prosecutors, meanwhile, say they haven’t declined any DWI cases from the sheriff’s office since spring—raising new questions about what is, and is not, being sent forward.
Two ex-deputies, granted anonymity because they still work in law enforcement, described a shift this year from arrests to warnings or lesser tickets. One recalled a spring staff meeting where, he said, supervisors told line deputies to “don’t write DWIs anymore—write careless and imprudent and go home.” Another said they were told to call the highway patrol when they encountered suspected drunk drivers or to arrange a ride instead of taking someone into custody. “We didn’t have support,” the first former deputy said, adding that both left the department within the last year. They said they feared retaliation if they spoke publicly, but they shared details with reporters who began requesting records in August.
Public records gathered for that inquiry show a break in filings from the sheriff’s office that began in mid-April. Internal tallies from the department list nine DWI arrests for 2025 through early summer, compared with 16 last year. But a separate state list shows only seven sheriff’s-office DWI case filings for 2025, with the remaining cases handled by other agencies. Court clerks provided a sheet indicating that since April 16 there have been zero DWI cases in Carroll County courts initiated by the sheriff’s office. In the same window, the highway patrol and Carrollton police accounted for 19 DWI cases countywide, according to state data summaries shared with the newsroom.
McCoy, who has served more than five years as sheriff, repeatedly declined on-camera interviews. When confronted outside the courthouse and shown the records, he said, “People here, we just ain’t catching no DWI offenders,” and called the allegation that he told deputies to stop arresting for DWI “a lie.” He added, “If we stop a vehicle and they are under the influence of alcohol, they get brought in.” Asked why no sheriff’s-office cases have appeared in court since April, McCoy said not every day brings a stop that meets arrest standards. He also said deputies have access to breath-testing equipment at the office if needed during an investigation.
Carroll County Prosecuting Attorney Cassandra Brown said her office screens DWI referrals on two basics—the legality of the traffic stop and the quality of the investigation. If both are sound, she files charges; if not, she declines. Brown said that since April 1 she has not declined any DWI cases submitted by the sheriff’s office. That statement prompted follow-up to the sheriff: if no cases were declined, did the office stop sending them? As of this week, the sheriff had not addressed that specific question. The ex-deputies, for their part, argue that several arrests they made earlier in the year never reached prosecutors.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving Missouri said anonymous complaints triggered its outreach to Carroll County. Executive Director Tabitha Perkins said the group urged the sheriff’s office to ensure deputies have the tools and training required for DWI processing. She said McCoy assured the organization that policies were being followed. Former deputies countered that the message inside the office discouraged arrests. They described being “constantly threatened” with job consequences if cases failed in court, a pressure they believe contributed to a dip in enforcement on night patrols along U.S. 24 and county roads.
Carroll County sits on the Missouri River west of Keytesville and north of Lexington, with Carrollton as the county seat. Like many rural jurisdictions, the sheriff’s office covers long stretches with small patrol shifts and relies on mutual aid from the highway patrol and nearby departments. The office’s own records show a modest DWI caseload in 2024 and early 2025 before the spring cutoff noted by court clerks. The state’s highway safety program has historically funded training and equipment for county agencies, including breath-test maintenance and checkpoint support, but the day-to-day decision to make an arrest rests with each deputy and supervisor on scene.
The political and procedural stakes are now colliding. The former deputies say they want the Missouri Attorney General to review practices at the sheriff’s office. McCoy says disgruntled ex-employees are “stirring up trouble” because their cases “failed on them in court,” which he argues explains the drop. The prosecutor’s statement that she has not rejected any sheriff’s-office DWI cases since April undercuts that claim. It also spotlights a basic question: if deputies are still stopping impaired drivers, where are the referrals? With winter holidays approaching, MADD officials said they will continue monitoring and pressing for clarity from county leaders.
What happens next is largely administrative. Investigators and journalists who assembled the records say they are seeking any additional logs, body camera downloads and referral forms that would show DWI arrests routed to prosecutors since April. County commissioners could ask for a formal briefing on enforcement trends and resource needs. The attorney general’s office has been asked whether it will open a review; no answer had been posted by Thursday evening. If state officials do step in, typical actions include policy audits, training recommendations and documentation of equipment access and calibration for breath testing.
Around Carrollton this week, the courthouse square was quiet, with holiday lights strung around the lawn. Deputies moved in and out of the sheriff’s office as residents traded updates about the story. “We just want the roads safe,” one shop owner said, recalling state troopers handling a recent overnight DWI stop on a stretch usually patrolled by county units. A former reserve deputy said he hopes the back-and-forth “forces everyone to put it in writing—either we’re making these arrests or we’re not,” adding that the public deserves a straight answer.
As of Thursday night, the sheriff maintained his denial, prosecutors said they had not turned away any sheriff’s-office DWI cases since April, and state tallies continued to show other agencies making impaired-driving arrests inside Carroll County. The next milestone is whether the attorney general or county leaders announce a formal review and whether any new DWI filings from the sheriff’s office appear on the court docket before the end of the year.
Author note: Last updated December 19, 2025.