Law Tracking Racial Disparities Repealed

By Cash Michaels –

A hidden budget provision removes a major safeguard for monitoring officers.

As of July 1, 2026, a state law passed in 1999, which required law enforcement agencies throughout North Carolina to keep track of racial disparities in traffic stops, use-of-force incidents, searches, and arrests, is no longer on the books.

For almost thirty years, police officers and highway patrol troopers have been required to collect such information to be stored in a database for policymakers seeking guidance about trends in policing statewide. But thanks to two sentences on page 448 of the just-passed 634-page state budget, that requirement has now been repealed.

Because Republican legislative leaders in the NC General Assembly are technically responsible for writing the much-delayed budget that was finally passed last month (a year behind schedule), Democrats were quick to point their fingers at the GOP majority for slipping the language in to the budget agreement without their approval.

A spokesperson for Democratic Gov. Josh Stein told The Raleigh News and Observer the removal of the law enforcement data requirement law “…undermines the trust law enforcement officers have worked to build in their communities. … Greater transparency leads to greater accountability. This criminal justice data helps our law enforcement agencies better serve their people and makes North Carolina safer and stronger.”

Other Democrats are admitting that they knew nothing about the provision when they voted.

Republican legislative leadership, on the other hand, say that law enforcement agencies requested the repeal because they “weren’t using the information.” Those include the NC Association of Chiefs of Police and the NC Sheriffs Association.

Now there’s concern about what will happen to the statewide information already collected since Jan. 1st, 2000. The law ultimately required all law enforcement agencies in cities or towns with populations of 10,000 or more to record the data about their traffic stops, arrests, searches, and use-of-force incidents for later reference to determine if there were racial inequalities in police practices and where.

Whenever there was an allegation of a racially disparate traffic stop, for example, previous data from that city, town or region of the state could be referred to either in court or in addressing the allegation.

Law enforcement countered that being required to record the names, racial descriptions, and ages of members of the public they came in contact with took time away from their ability to better do their jobs.