Police leaders back Whatley in ad criticizing Cooper’s public safety record

Cooper points to his record as attorney general and to a 2023 bail law; a pandemic-era prison settlement remains disputed

Two North Carolina police association leaders are backing Republican Michael Whatley in a new ad that challenges Democrat Roy Cooper’s public safety record in the U.S. Senate race.

“He showed up with policies that handcuff the cops and took the handcuffs off the criminals,” David Rose, president of the North Carolina Police Benevolent Association, said in the ad.

Chet Effler, president of the North Carolina Fraternal Order of Police, challenges Cooper’s account of his record: “I don’t know who is writing script for his TV, but it’s false.”

The ad was released Monday by the Republican-aligned Senate Leadership Fund. In a statement accompanying it, Effler endorsed Whatley, saying officers deserve a senator who “will have their backs in Washington DC.” Rose said Cooper’s policies had made officers’ jobs harder.

Cooper has made public safety a theme of his own campaign. In a June ad, the former attorney general and governor said he put violent offenders in prison and, as governor, “toughened bail laws, went after drug dealers pushing fentanyl” and opposed defunding police.

Cooper signed the Pretrial Integrity Act in 2023. The law assigns release decisions for people charged with certain serious crimes, including murder, to a judge. It also generally requires a judge to set release conditions when someone is arrested on a new charge while awaiting trial in another case. Judges may still grant release under the law.

The Cooper administration reached a 2021 settlement calling for 3,500 people to leave state prisons earlier than scheduled during the COVID-19 pandemic. The NC Department of Public Safety said the state would use sentence credits, supervised community confinement and other forms of early reentry to meet that target.

"The 3,500 early releases required under the settlement would be in addition to the approximately 16 percent reduction already achieved since the lawsuit was filed less than a year ago. The current population of 28,659 constitutes the lowest state prison population level since the enactment of Structured Sentencing in October 1994. The population was at its peak in 2010 at 40,279 individuals," according to a 2021 statement from Disability Rights NC.

Cooper’s campaign disputes the assertion that he personally released prisoners. It says his administration fought broader releases sought in the prison conditions lawsuit and that corrections and parole officials made the individual decisions.

Whatley and Cooper are running for the seat held by retiring Republican Sen. Thom Tillis.

Cooper has been an advocate of cashless bail. He created the Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice as his first term drew to a close, a group he handpicked to “reimagine public safety” and which, among 125 recommendations, included elimination of cash bail.

Public records, via the gubernatorial veto stamp, show Cooper was against North Carolina sheriffs cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The North Carolina Troopers Association has endorsed Whatley.

“The most basic job of any government is to keep its citizens safe," Whatley said.