AN ACT to appropriate funds to the office of violence prevention in the department of public safety to be used to award competitive grants to local governments, law enforcement agencies, and nonprofit organizations to fund the development of community violence intervention programs.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  Definition. – For purposes of this act, the term community violence intervention program is a program that focuses on individuals at the highest risk of violence and uses prevention and intervention strategies to reduce violence and retaliation. This term includes violence interruption, group violence intervention, hospital‑based violence intervention, violence intervention programs that use cognitive behavioral therapy, and violence reduction through environmental design interventions such as blight reduction and cleaning and greening.

SECTION 2.  Appropriation. – There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Office of Violence Prevention in the Department of Public Safety the sum of ten million dollars ($10,000,000) in nonrecurring funds for each fiscal year of the 2023‑2025 fiscal biennium to be used to award competitive grants to local governments, law enforcement agencies, and nonprofit organizations to fund the development of community violence intervention programs in the communities served by the grant recipients.

SECTION 3.  Grants Process. – The Office of Violence Prevention shall establish the procedures and criteria for awarding grants under this act and make the final decision about grant awards, subject to all of the following limitations:

(1)        Funds shall be awarded to recipients that serve communities located in municipalities with high levels of violence, as determined by (i) the total number of homicides in the municipality over the three‑year period preceding the date of the application for grant funds or (ii) a homicide rate in the municipality over the three‑year period preceding the date of the application for the grant funds that substantially exceeds the State's overall homicide rate for that same period.

(2)        In addition to any other criteria set forth in this act or established by the Office of Violence Prevention, an applicant for grant funds under the grant program shall identify the segment or area of the population it serves as having the highest risk of perpetrating or being victimized by violence and primarily use grant funds received under this grant program to provide violence intervention services to that segment or area of the population.

(3)        In addition to any other criteria set forth in this act or established by the Office of Violence Prevention, a law enforcement agency that applies for funding under the grant program established under this act shall only be eligible to receive funding if it provides the Office of Violence Prevention with a memorandum of understanding entered into with a non‑law enforcement entity establishing how funds received under this grant program are to be used, including identifying non‑law enforcement intervention strategies for which at least fifty percent (50%) of the grant funds received must be used.

(4)        An applicant may not receive more than one grant under the grant program established under this act.

(5)        The size of a single grant awarded under the grant program established under this act may not exceed five million dollars ($5,000,000).

SECTION 4.  Reversion. – Funds appropriated in Section 2 of this act shall remain available until the earlier of the date the funds are expended in accordance with the provisions of this act or July 1, 2026.

SECTION 5.  Report. – Beginning December 1, 2023, and semiannually thereafter until all of the funds appropriated in this act have been expended, the Office of Violence Prevention shall report to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Justice and Public Safety on all of the following for the three‑month period preceding the report:

(1)        The number of grant awards.

(2)        The amount awarded to each grantee.

(3)        The geographic area and segment or area of the population each grantee will serve with funds awarded to it under the grant program.

(4)        The purpose for which each grantee shall use funds awarded to it under the grant program.

SECTION 6.  Effective Date. – This act becomes effective July 1, 2023.