I spent this past Friday riding a police boat with Natural Resources Police Officer Chris Morris (left), figuring the start of summer would be a great time watch him at work. City police had grounded their boats in December for the slow winter (thought they returned in April).

I was particularly interested in how much water Morris had to cover -- on this day he patrolled from the Inner Harbor to Middle River. Though police tell me their boats were in the water on Friday, I didn't see them starting at 3 p.m. that day. Another NRP officer assigned to Middle River had the day off, so Morris was responsible for an area that took him 31 minutes to get from one point to another, traveling at more than 41 mph.

Despite a beautiful afternoon and evening, few boaters were out and Morris spent most of his time conducting safety checks, measuring crabs to make sure they were the legal size and watching out for speeders. We did meet up with Baltimore County police officers (see Baltimore County Police Department video on their marine unit) out on their boat.

Former officers, publicly, and current marine officers, privately, complained that public safety was being jeopardized by pulling them off boats in the winter and early Spring. Morris told me that NRP didn't see a spike in calls in the city's absence.

So either police dodged a bullet or made a prudent staffing call.