AN ACT to appropriate funds to pilot support team assisted response (STAR) programs in certain city police departments.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Public Safety the sum of nine hundred ninety thousand dollars ($990,000) in nonrecurring funds for each year of the 2021‑2023 fiscal biennium to be used to provide grants for a pilot Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) Program in the police departments of the following cities:

(1)        Charlotte

(2)        Greensboro

(3)        Greenville.

SECTION 2.  The pilot STAR Programs funded in Section 1 of this act shall be created for the purpose of providing alternative responses to citizens in crisis. Each STAR Program should allow for the response of behavioral and medical health personnel to nonviolent situations deemed appropriate by the city police department. At a minimum, those responding to citizens on behalf of each STAR Program should be equipped to provide individuals with information regarding shelter, food aid, counseling, and medication, as necessary.

SECTION 3.  No later than April 1, 2022, the Department of Public Safety, in consultation with the city police departments of Charlotte, Greensboro, and Greenville, shall report to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Justice and Public Safety regarding the following:

(1)        The general progress of each STAR Program.

(2)        The number of incidents in which each police department utilized its STAR Program.

(3)        The outcomes of the incidents in which each police department utilized its STAR Program.

(4)        An itemized accounting from each police department of the use of grant funds received pursuant to this act.

SECTION 4.  No later than April 1, 2022, the Department of Public Safety shall provide the same report created pursuant to Section 3 of this act to the Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission and the Sheriffs' Education and Training Standards Commission. No later than May 1, 2022, each Commission shall make the report publicly available on its website and shall jointly and electronically deliver a copy of the report to each county sheriff and municipal chief of police in the State.

SECTION 5.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2021.