‘A growing public safety issue’: Budget stalemate limits law enforcement programs

Because of the state budget stalemate, it’s taking longer to certify new law enforcement officers and investigate potential misconduct. And a new scholarship program for future law enforcement officers is in jeopardy.

The two programs depend on funding provisions in the N.C. Department of Justice’s section of the proposed budget. But Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the plan last summer, and Republican legislative leaders haven’t put out a new budget responding to the Democratic governor’s call for higher teacher pay and Medicaid expansion. Instead they’ve passed a series of mini-budgets.

The NC Insider is surveying state agencies to assess the impacts of the months-long budget stalemate on various government programs. Many have pressing funding needs that haven’t been addressed in the mini-budgets.

The Department of Justice’s Criminal Justice Education and Standards Commission needs the budget’s $383,000 allocation to fill four vacant positions. The division is missing about 10% of its staff now, and that’s slowed down its work, Attorney General Josh Stein said.

The division handles certification for law enforcement officers, and Stein says the staffing shortage means it’s taking longer for new officers to get credentialed and get to work.

“The person may end up slipping through the cracks and they lose out on the hire,” he said. “When you’re down 10%, it just starts to gum up the works.”

The division is also seeing delays in investigations of misconduct to determine if an officer should lose their certification; it received about 300 of them last year.

“It’s in everyone’s best interest to resolve these investigations as quickly as possible, so that we can make sure that the wrong people are not in law enforcement and the right ones are back out in their communities keeping people safe,” Stein said.

The division is also seeing a backlog in its periodic audits of law enforcement agencies, which ensure that agencies are conducting background checks and required officer training.

Roxboro Police Chief David Hess, who serves as president of the N.C. Association of Chiefs of Police, said his group is “gravely concerned” about the funding issue.

“This funding problem needs an immediate solution whether in the pending state budget bill or other legislation,” Hess said. “The funding deficiency for this agency is a growing public safety issue statewide.”

Hess explained that the program’s funding is tied to court fee revenue, which has been declining. The vetoed budget bill would increase the fees in order to fund the additional staff.

Without a budget soon, problems and delays from the staffing shortage “will exist for all state law enforcement officers (Highway Patrol, SBI and others) as well as local police departments,” Hess said.

The relatively new Criminal Justice Fellows program is also in limbo because of the budget battle. Modeled after the Teaching Fellows program, it helps pay off student loans for community college criminal justice programs as long as the student works in law enforcement for at least four years.

The goal is to help alleviate a shortage of police officers, particularly in rural communities. The program is still taking applications, but no new participants will get paid unless the $332,000 budget allocation to fund 100 students per year becomes law.

“That makes it hard for us to generate the enthusiasm and get the applications,” Stein said.

For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Domecast politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it on Megaphone, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.

This story was originally published January 30, 2020 at 3:51 PM with the headline "‘A growing public safety issue’: Budget stalemate limits law enforcement programs."