DOJ Delivers FAQs

This data covers January 2017, through the present.

• Total Funds Won: This is the total amount that NCDOJ has won for each county. It includes opioid settlement funds, consumer protection settlement and penalty funds, Medicaid investigation funds, Environmental Enhancement Grants, and taxpayer funds.
• Sexual Assault Kits Tested: Evidence collection kits from sexual assaults that are in law enforcement custody across the state.
• Law Enforcement Officer Certifications: This includes all sworn police officers, correctional officers, probation/parole officers, juvenile justice officers, and juvenile court counselors, deputy sheriffs, detention officers, and telecommunicators certified to perform their vital roles. The North Carolina Sheriffs’ Education and Training Standards Commission and the North Carolina Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission certify these positions.
• Law Enforcement Trainings: Through the North Carolina Justice Academy, law enforcement officers are certified in basic, intermediate, and advanced training on topics such as anti-terrorism, community-oriented policing, criminal investigation, traffic crash investigations, firearms, self-defense, and management and supervision.
• Opioid Settlement Funds: Since 2021, Attorney General Josh Stein has announced $56 billion in national settlements with opioid companies that will help bring desperately needed resources to communities harmed by the opioid epidemic, including $1.5 billion to North Carolina. The agreements resolve litigation over the role of companies in creating and fueling the opioid epidemic. The agreements also require significant industry changes that will help prevent this type of crisis from ever happening again.
• Funds Won for Consumers: Attorney General Josh Stein works to protect North Carolina consumers from scams and fraud. Stein and his Consumer Protection Division have helped hundreds of thousands of consumers get millions of dollars back in restitution and have helped win millions of dollars in savings on utility rates.
• Medicaid Fraud Funds Won: The recovery of funds from NC DOJ’s Medicaid Investigations Division, which investigates fraud by Medicaid health care providers or suppliers, physical abuse of Medicaid patients or any patient in a Medicaid-funded facility and stealing or improper co-mingling of patients’ funds in a Medicaid-funded facility.
• Environmental Enhancement Grant Funds: These funds are included in the Taxpayer Funds Won & Grants category. The Environmental Enhancement Grant program began after an agreement between the Attorney General’s Office and Smithfield Foods in 2000. Under that agreement, Smithfield provides $2 million to the state every year to be distributed among environmental projects across North Carolina. The Attorney General’s Office has awarded more than 200 projects in the state.
• Taxpayer Recovered Funds: These funds are included in the Taxpayer Funds Won & Grants category. The North Carolina Department of Revenue refers criminal cases against people and businesses that violate tax code and law to NCDOJ’s Special Prosecutions Section, which seeks indictments and settlements leading to the recovery of funds for North Carolina taxpayers.
• Evidence Submitted: The pieces of evidence submitted by each county for testing by the North Carolina State Crime Lab.
• Criminal Appeals Cases Worked: NCDOJ attorneys provide legal representation and advice to all state government departments, agencies and commissions and handle all criminal appeals from state trial courts. This is the number of criminal appeals cases NCDOJ attorneys worked in each county.

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A Memorandum of Agreement between the state and local governments directs how opioid settlement funds are distributed and used in the state. The MOA offers local governments two options: (1) fund one or more strategies of evidence-based, high-impact strategies to directly address the epidemic; and (2) engaging in a collaborative strategic planning process involving a diverse array of stakeholders and then fund a strategy from option one. Any local government that spends opioid settlement funds is required to file financial reports and impact information on an annual basis.

Untested sexual assault kits are defined as kits that are collected and booked into evidence, but detectives and/or prosecutors do not request DNA analysis and the kits are put into storage. The untested kits may remain in a police evidence storage facility, hospital, or rape crisis center. The untested kits may also be collected and sent to crime labs for testing, but in a queue, awaiting DNA analysis for months, years, and sometimes indefinitely. In June 2017, the state legislature in coordination with NC DOJ required every law enforcement agency to report to the State Crime Lab how many untested kits were in its possession. In October of 2018, Attorney General Josh Stein launched a new statewide sexual assault kit tracking system that allows survivors and actors in the criminal justice system to track these kits in real time, increasing transparency and accountability. In January of 2019, law enforcement agencies across the state renewed the efforts to test the untested kits, and in February of 2019, Attorney General Josh Stein announced the results of the State Crime Lab’s audit and authorized the tracking system to be utilized. The system ensures that survivors, law enforcement, medical providers, prosecutors, and laboratory personnel can see the status of their kit. This transparency helps ensure that survivors are not kept in the dark about their kit’s progress, prevents backlogs, and places greater accountability on criminal justice stakeholders.

In 2000, the Attorney General and Smithfield Foods entered into a 25-year agreement that, in part, provided $2 million per year for environmental projects across the state. This money was used to establish the EEG Program, which has awarded environmental grants since 2002. EEG awards range from $5,000 to $500,000 in grants for a three-year grant project. These grants are only available to non-profit organizations, including academic institutions, and government entities. Eligible applicants can apply for funds for projects in the areas of land acquisitions, construction, remediation, restoration, planning, education, or research. EEG also fund small grant projects (awards of $50,000 or less) within these areas. There is a preference for projects that address environmental harm and damage to overburdened and underserved communities as well as for projects in eastern North Carolina.

Trainings can include anti-terrorism, mental health response, critical stress on the job, community-oriented policing, criminal investigation, traffic crash investigations, firearms, self-defense, and management and supervision. Certificates can include leadership, school resource officer, and tactical training.

The NC DOJ protects the people of North Carolina through its work to prevent crime and support law enforcement, to safeguard consumers, and to defend the state, its people, and their constitutional rights. This work requires the expertise and passion of incredible public servants who work at NC DOJ, and it also requires strong public and private partnerships to see the work through. NC DOJ partners with federal agencies, other state agencies, the North Carolina General Assembly, local governments, tribal governments, and non-profits to deliver the best service and outcomes for the people of North Carolina.