Public Safety in North Carolina

The Challenge

When we call 911 for help, we expect a response. Public safety provides the foundation for healthy and prosperous communities, and our residents insist on a fair and effective system. They expect perpetrators to be identified and prosecuted; taxpayer dollars to be allocated efficiently; and people—victims and those accused of crimes—to be treated fairly. Law enforcement and the court system face a variety of existing and emerging challenges, including low clearance rates for solving crimes; mental health and substance use issues that the system is ill-equipped to handle; difficulty recruiting and retaining staff; racial disparities; high recidivism; and outdated technology and information systems. However, stakeholders are addressing these issues with innovations, including alternative responder systems and the use of new data and technology tools.

Law enforcement agencies in North Carolina are actively exploring alternative responses to substance use, mental health issues, and homelessness, like police/behavioral health co-responder systems. Eighty-three percent of North Carolina police departments have at least one alternative responder program in place. These initiatives can help to break the cycle of repeat system involvement by addressing root causes of behavior. To address widespread opioid addiction, agencies are also using tools like Overdose Detection Mapping (ODMAP), promoting techniques like public health/public safety partnerships to share information and expertise across agencies, and testing strategies like the Collective Impact Model (CIM) to build a framework of ongoing support for the problem.

Potential Responses

Short-Term

• Consider reallocating resources to solving and preventing serious and violent crimes, including conducting an assessment of needs and providing resources to support alternative responses to crisis calls.
• Build partnerships between public health and public safety agencies to more effectively combat the opioid crisis, tapping resources like the national Overdose Response Strategy.
• Consult criminal justice system data, including for various demographic groups.

Medium-Term

• Promote safety by reducing recidivism through efforts to help justice-involved people find stable employment.
• Promote retention by helping first responders manage job stress with resources like the N.C. Department of Public Safety’s Responder Assistance Initiative.
• Partner with organizations like the Criminal Justice Innovation Lab to understand how local systems are performing and develop, innovate, and evaluate solutions.

Long-Term

• Engage stakeholders and community members to develop a strategic plan that identifies public safety priorities and actionable steps to achieve them.
• Consider using evidence-based evaluations to assess new law enforcement technologies or, if that is not an option, developing a “Pitch and Pilot” system for testing products and services at pitch events, piloting promising technologies, and scaling-up successful solutions.

Key Stats

• Of the 1.3 million criminal charges in North Carolina in 2021, more than 1 million were for non-violent misdemeanors (UNC Criminal Justice Innovation Lab).
• Black people are incarcerated three times more than white people in North Carolina (UNC Criminal Justice Innovation Lab).
• Between 2015 and 2021, North Carolina saw a 270% increase in opioid deaths, from 11.6 per 100,000 to 43.3 per 100,000 (UNC Criminal Justice Innovation Lab).
• Research shows success with second chance hiring—people with criminal records have longer employment tenures and lower turnover rates than those with no records (Couloute and Kopf 2018).
• The U.S. loses $87 billion a year in economic output due to criminal records that impact employability (UNC Criminal Justice Innovation Lab).

Example: Sylva Community Care Program

To address increasing issues with behavioral health calls, the Sylva (population 2,600) Police Department in Jackson County worked with Western Carolina University (WCU) to provide a field intern from their master’s program in social work. The Community Care Program allowed officers to make referrals to the field intern or co-respond in cases involving a behavioral health crisis. Through the partnership, Sylva added new capability at no cost. The program’s success led to funding from the Dogwood Health Trust for a permanent Community Care Liaison position.

References

Centers for Disease Control. Understanding the Opioid Overdose Epidemic (website).

Couloute, Lucius and Daniel Kopf (2018). Out of Prison and Out of Work: Unemployment among Formerly Incarcerated People, Prison Policy Initiative, July.

Criminal Justice Innovation Lab (website). UNC School of Government.

———. Measuring Justice Dashboard.

———. North Carolina Court Appearance Project.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (2024). 2023 Internet Crime Report.

Haygood, Hallee (2019). “Reentry from Incarceration to Workforce.” Facts That Matter (blog), UNC School of Government, ncIMPACT Initiative.

Hughes, Bob (2024). 2024 U.S. Public Safety Trends Report. Mark43.

Livet, Melanie and Chloe Richard (2024). The Opioid Response Project: Evaluation Report 2020. Center for Medication Optimization, UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy.

ncIMPACT Initiative, Criminal Justice (website). UNC School of Government.

North Carolina Commission on the Administration of Law and Justice (2016). Improving Indigent Defense in North Carolina.

North Carolina Criminal Law (blog). UNC School of Government.

North Carolina Department of Public Safety (website).

———. Responder Assistance Initiative.

North Carolina Judicial Branch (2024). eCourts Fact Sheet.

Smith, Jessica (2022). “Supporting Criminal Justice Reform.” The North Carolina State Bar Journal (Fall).

Smith, Jessica, C. Ross Hatton, Leisha DeHart-Davis, and Maggie A. Bailey (2023). The Alternative Responder Project: Final Report. UNC School of Government, Criminal Justice Innovation Lab, July.

Smith, Jessica and Hannah Turner (2023). North Carolina Rural Jail Project. UNC School of Government, Criminal Justice Innovation Lab, January.

Smith, Jessica, Jamie Vaske, and C. Ross Hatton (2022). Bail Reform in North Carolina Judicial District 21: Evaluation Report. UNC School of Government, Criminal Justice Innovation Lab, April.