DPS Dispatch

Governor's Crime Commission Executive Director Caroline Farmer calls attention to the decline in Victim of Crime Act funding and suggests ways North Carolinians can help ensure our communities continue to support family members, neighbors, coworkers, friends and acquaintances who have been victims of crime.

In honor of Volunteer Week, we are highlighting SHP’s extraordinary contribution to this worthy organization. In 2023, the patrol raised a record $70,934.68 for Special Olympics. According to F/Sgt. Hipp, who has been the State Coordinator for the Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics since 2018, SHP had raised about $8,000 in previous years. How did the patrol increase their fundraising total by almost a factor of nine last year?

Some of the key resources that the 24-Hour Watch coordinates are the tactical dispatcher program, which provides dispatchers to large events that backfill local 911 centers, and skilled communications professionals that can set up complex radio systems and troubleshoot and repair issues. The 24-Hour Watch is ready to meet the need statewide, whatever it may be. Outside of communications, the 24-Hour Watch receives requests and dispatches specialized state resources such as the Hazardous Materials Regional Response Teams (NCRRT), the Helo-Aquatic Rescue Team (NCHART), the Urban Search and Rescue Teams and Swift Water Rescue Teams, among others. The 24-Hour Watch is also an approved entity to push Emergency Alert System (EAS) and Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) messages to the public. 

April is Alcohol Awareness Month, and NC Alcohol Law Enforcement would like to take the opportunity to raise awareness of an important issue they encounter in our state: underage youth purchasing, possessing and consuming alcoholic beverages.

On March 14, at the Bob Barker Retreat along the Cape Fear River, North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement graduated its first female K-9 handlers, Special Agents Megan Scherbekow and Blythe Watson. These groundbreaking women have each put in 350 hours of training with their K-9s and have both dreamed of being K-9 handlers since they were children.

The first week of March is Severe Weather Preparedness Week in North Carolina, to encourage you and your family to have a safety plan in case severe weather strikes and to practice what you will do, to have an emergency kit, and to have a way of getting weather alerts.

Knowing that disaster sheltering in Warren County was a gap in capability, Director Tucker went in 2021 to the North Carolina Emergency Management Association’s conference and talked to other emergency managers about sheltering to learn all he could as he made his plans

NC Emergency Management employees prepare North Carolinians for disasters in a variety of ways, but today we recognize one team that is essential in natural disasters. Today is National Weatherperson’s Day, so we are spotlighting two meteorologists who comprise the weather reporting team for the department.

The purpose of VOD is to bring together offenders and victims of a crime to provide an opportunity for them to engage in open and facilitated communication to address the harm caused, understand the impact of the offense and find ways to promote healing and resolution.

January is National Human Trafficking Prevention Month. The Department of Homeland Security has declared January 11th Wear Blue Day to raise awareness of this often-invisible crime. Human trafficking, also called trafficking in persons, is the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain labor or commercial sex acts from a person.

Steps all of us can take to make our roads safer for pedestrians and cyclists.

Here are a few tips that will help keep you, your valuables and your bank accounts safe this holiday season, whether you shop in stores or online.

NC Emergency Management professionals break down what El Niño means for North Carolina's winter weather forecast and how you can be prepared for potential frozen precipitation anywhere in the state.