Senate Bill 538: Law Enforcement Investment Act

• Appropriates $250,000 in recurring funds and $250,000 in nonrecurring funds to the North Carolina Justice Academy for fiscal year 2024-2025 to expand training courses and develop online offerings.

• Requires the North Carolina Justice Academy and Community College System to create a memorandum of understanding by October 1, 2024, allowing community colleges to provide law enforcement training to reduce travel costs and increase accessibility.

• Appropriates $250,000 in recurring funds to the Department of Justice for fiscal year 2024-2025 to develop and maintain the North Carolina Law Enforcement Accreditation Program.

• Expands the Criminal Justice Fellows Program to include bachelor's degree and Basic Law Enforcement Training Program certificate recipients, changes eligible county definition from population under 200,000 to any county in the state, and adjusts repayment periods to 60 months for associate degrees and 120 months for bachelor's degrees.

• Requires all law enforcement agencies in North Carolina to establish Crisis Intervention Teams by December 1, 2026, with specially trained officers in mental and behavioral health crisis de-escalation, and appropriates $250,000,000 in grant funds for training.