As new report shows NC crime rates down, Whatley keeps public safety a focus of US Senate race

U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley rallied with supporters in Fayetteville Thursday, warning about threats to public safety and promoting endorsements he has won from police groups. Whatley has repeatedly criticized his opponent, Democrat Roy Cooper, as not being tough enough on crime when he was governor.

2026-09-03

“The number one priority for any government —  local government, state government, or federal government — has got to be protecting its citizens,” Whatley said, adding: “And on that count, Roy Cooper was an abject failure.”

State data shows crime fell every year of Cooper’s second term as governor, from 2020 through 2024. And crime has continued falling under his political ally and successor, Democratic Gov. Josh Stein. 

On Thursday, just hours before Whatley’s event kicked off, Stein’s Department of Public Safety announced crime rates had fallen across the board yet again in the first half of 2026.

• Violent crime as a whole was down 5.8%.
• Homicides involving gun violence were down 14.1%.
• Drug crimes, property crimes and financial crimes were also all down.

The state noted one area of concern: A rise in reports of intimidation and kidnappings, which it said were largely due to domestic disputes and intimate-partner violence.

“These insights will help our law enforcement agencies understand where we are seeing success and where emerging needs are developing,” said Caroline Farmer, executive director of the Governor’s Crime Commission — a role she began under Cooper and has continued under Stein.

Despite the drop in crime in North Carolina under Cooper and Stein, Whatley has made public safety fears a key part of his campaign. He has pointed in particular to a legal settlement Cooper signed in 2021 that gave early-release to more than 3,500 prison inmates — about one in every 10 statewide — after his administration faced lawsuits about prison overcrowding during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Whatley’s campaign estimates that the Cooper administration released 4,200 inmates early.

“What do you think happens when you put 4,200 criminals back on the streets? You unleash a crime wave across North Carolina. You put criminals back on the streets because you're worried about them getting COVID,” Whatley said. 

The Cooper campaign says Whatley’s accusation is false and leaves out essential context.

“Independent fact-checkers have called these attacks false – Michael Whatley is getting desperate and it’s shameful that he’s using heinous crimes to try to deceive North Carolinians,” the Cooper campaign said in a statement, adding that Cooper “spent his career putting rapists and violent criminals behind bars and signing tough on crime laws as governor."

In April 2020, a coalition of civil rights groups sued Cooper’s administration in an attempt to reduce COVID-19 infection risk in state facilities. The ACLU of North Carolina and others said Cooper failed to protect inmates from the virus by refusing to halt jail admissions or release medically vulnerable people and inmates whose sentences were nearly up. The Cooper administration argued in court that it was already sufficiently protecting inmates from the virus. 

In June 2020, a North Carolina Superior Court judge ruled the civil rights groups were likely to win their case and ordered the parties reach a solution to keep prisoners safe — one that would include inmate reentry programs and new sentencing credit opportunities. In December 2020, the judge appointed what’s known as a special master to oversee the negotiations. 

On Feb. 25, 2021, the parties agreed to a settlement that allowed for the early release of 3,500 people in state custody. The prisoners released were mostly people who were scheduled to be released anyway within the following weeks or months. Some had violent records, and some committed additional crimes after being released. 

Whatley often mentions DeCarlos Brown, a homeless Charlotte resident with a history of mental illness who was accused of murdering Ukrainian resident Iryna Zarutska in a seemingly random attack last year. Brown was not released due to Cooper’s order, but Whatley again repeated the falsehood that Cooper let him out.

Whatley was joined on stage in Fayetteville with the sheriff of neighboring Harnett County, Wayne Coats, and Coats’ No. 2 deputy whom Coats is endorsing to succeed him as sheriff this year, Aaron Meredith. The department has faced scrutiny for years over allegations of police brutality in the community and particularly in the jail, which the sheriff controls. 

Harnett County paid $6 million in 2021 to settle a number of claims of brutality against local deputies, including one who killed a man during a warrantless search. WRAL has investigated claims about the department for years, as have state officials. In May, three guards were criminally charged in a state-run investigation into use of excessive force at the jail. 

Coats told the Fayetteville crowd that he supports Whatley because he believes the Republican will support law enforcement better than Cooper. “As law enforcement officers, every day we put people in jail. And it's like a slap in our face when you release these kinds of folks,” Coats said. 

Some of Whatley’s allies in national conservative groups are also attempting to tie Cooper to criminal cases that have no relationship to the former governor. Political ads commissioned by the Senate Leadership Fund super PAC feature fathers of North Carolinians who were killed. In the ads, the fathers attack Cooper for the 2021 settlement — even though neither of the suspected killers in those murder cases was released from prison as part of that settlement.