City police leaving -- why?
Baltimore police say 42 officers left the force in June. That's up from 17 who departed in the same month last year, and the 20 who left the year before that. The department is now 106 officers short of its authorized strength of 3,119 sworn positions.
Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld, speaking on Maryland Public Television's "Direct Connection" program said his agency can't hire fast enough "to keep up with the attrition rate we're seeing now. We're operating at very conservative staffing levels across all units. The gap is only going to widen."
For more details, see today's story on the issue.
The big question is why did so many cops leave?
The union says it's no coincidence that the exodus occurred in the weeks leading up to changes in their pensions that left them contributing more and getting less -- and upping the years from 20 to 25 need to retire. City Hall says the departures, while unusually high when compared to the most recent years, are not unusual when looking back over the past decade. They say 31 officers left in June 2004, 53 in June 2005 and 41 in June 2007.
I've included charts showing attrition rates and officer departures and you can look at the numbers and decide for yourself. Either way, police are planning more recruitment drives aimed at enticing ex-military types and women, even though they've cut back on academy classes from five or six a year to two or three.
The police union says their threats of an exodus have come true; City Hall says this is just part of a routine pattern.
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Top brass
Comments
Maybe I don't understand the policy, but wouldn't it make sense for every officer with more than 20 but less than 25 years of service to have retired this past year before the new pension policy went into effect? Let's say you have 22 years - if you retire now, you automatically receive your pension. But if you stay, now you need to put in 3 more years before you qualify. Might as well get out now and get the money. Can you get stats on how many of the people leaving the PD were between 20 and 25 years?
Posted by: JImbo | July 22, 2010 12:33 PM
Wait a minute! 3000 police officers assigned to protect 700,000 citizens? Thats one officer for every 233 citizens and considering they all work different shifts that means one officer for every 700 citizens. Thats not law enforcement, thats a John Wayne movie. There is no possible way an officer can patrol the streets effectively, and that is not taking into account the officers on desk duty for shooting someone, administrative officers who never see the streets and those parked in front of 7-11s sucking down free coffee. Said another way, your safety and security in Baltimore city is a stroke of sheer luck. And Im not allowed to carry a gun?
Posted by: Jim | July 22, 2010 2:24 PM
We can't pay the officers in Baltimore City enough, they have a very hard job.
Posted by: Bill | July 22, 2010 3:02 PM