Bill Summaries: H802 (2021)

Tracking:
  • Summary date: May 3 2021 - View summary

    Appropriates $990,000 for each year of the 2021-23 biennium from the General Fund to the Department of Public Safety (DPS) to provide grants for a pilot Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) Program in the Charlotte, Greensboro, and Greenville police departments. Provides that the purpose of the STAR Programs is providing alternative responses to citizens in crisis. Specifies that each STAR Program should allow for the response of behavioral and medical health personnel to nonviolent situations deemed appropriate by the city police department. Requires that at a minimum, those responding to citizens on behalf of each STAR Program be equipped to provide individuals with information regarding shelter, food aid, counseling, and medication, as necessary. Requires DPS, in consultation with those specified police departments, to report by April 1, 2022, to the specified NCGA committee on: (1) the general progress of each STAR Program, (2) the number of incidents in which each police department used its STAR Program, (3) the outcomes of the incidents in which each police department used its STAR Program, and (4) an itemized accounting of the use of grant funds. Requires DPS to provide this same report by April 1, 2022, to the Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission and the Sheriffs' Education and Training Standards Commission. Requires each Commission to make the report available on its website and deliver a copy of the report to each county sheriff and municipal chief of police in the state by May 1, 2022. Effective July 1, 2021.