GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1993

S	1 

SENATE BILL 1487*

Short Title:  Funds for Crime Stoppers.	(Public)
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Sponsors: Senators Lucas, Gulley; and Gunter.
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Referred to:  Appropriations.
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May 25, 1994

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO APPROPRIATE FUNDS TO LOCAL "CRIME STOPPERS" PROGRAMS THROUGHOUT THE STATE.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Crime Control and Public Safety, to be administered through the Crime Prevention Division, the sum of seven hundred thousand dollars ($700,000) for the 1994-1995 fiscal year, to be allocated as follows:
(1)	$35,000 to the North Carolina Crime Stoppers Association, to be used as seed money to assist in the development of new Crime Stoppers programs (providing for both administrative and reward costs), the promotion of existing Crime Stoppers programs, and to provide reward money for information received from areas without Crime Stoppers programs.
(2)	$650,000 to local Crime Stoppers programs.  These funds shall be divided among the existing programs, and among new programs formed after July 1, 1994, based upon the population of the county or counties in which they operate according to the following schedule:

County Population	Amount
Under 50,000	$ 5,000
50-100,000	$10,000
100-250,000	$15,000
Over 250,000	$20,000

	No existing program shall receive less than five thousand dollars ($5,000), except in the case of multiprogram counties, and no program shall receive more than twenty thousand dollars ($20,000).  These funds shall be used by the local Crime Stoppers programs only as reward money for information received to help solve crimes.
		In the case of local programs formed after July 1, 1994, funds disbursed shall be prorated according to the date of incorporation of the new program.  A letter of application from the chairman of the Board of Directors of a newly formed Crime Stoppers program shall be submitted to the Crime Prevention Division and verified through the North Carolina Crime Stoppers Association before any monies shall be disbursed.
(3)	$15,000 to the Crime Prevention Division of the Department of Crime Control and Public Safety, to be used to assist with program development and promotion, and to administer the funds appropriated in this act.
Sec. 2.  The Crime Prevention Division shall administer the funds appropriated in this act.  By August 1, 1994, the Division shall provide written notification to the Board of Directors of each existing local Crime Stoppers program of their eligibility to receive funding under the provisions of this act.  A certified list of active Crime Stoppers programs shall be provided to the Crime Prevention Division by the North Carolina Crime Stoppers Association for this purpose.
(1)	Each eligible Crime Stoppers program shall provide to the Crime Prevention Division a letter of acceptance or waiver of the allocated funds from the chairman of the Board of Directors of said program by September 1, 1994.
(2)	Crime Stoppers programs which fail to provide written notice of acceptance by September 1, 1994, shall be deemed to have waived their acceptance of these funds, and said funds shall be diverted to the use and benefit of the North Carolina Crime Stoppers Association to be used for development of new Crime Stoppers programs (providing for both administrative and reward costs) and for reward money for information received from areas without Crime Stoppers programs.
(3)	In counties where more than one Crime Stoppers program is operational, the funds allocated for that county shall be divided proportionally among each of the Crime Stoppers programs based on the population of the jurisdiction served by each program.  The North Carolina Crime Stoppers Association shall provide recommendations to the Crime Prevention Division of the allocations to be made in such counties.
(4)	Those Crime Stoppers programs serving more than one county shall receive the sum of the monies allocated to the individual counties served by that program, not to exceed twenty thousand dollars ($20,000).
Sec. 3. Each Crime Stoppers program receiving funds through this act shall at its own cost submit to an annual independent audit at the end of the fiscal year.  These audits shall be conducted in accordance with the auditing standards prescribed by the State Auditor.  The audit report shall be forwarded to the State Auditor and the Crime Prevention Division of the Department of Crime Control and Public Safety for review.
Sec. 4.  This act becomes effective July 1, 1994.