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The Baltimore Police Department lost hundreds of officers last year, sparking a judge and police leadership to sound the alarm that the rate of cops leaving the force is unsustainable, and the city cannot bear to lose even more in 2023.
"I can't overstate the seriousness of the staffing issue," Judge James K. Bredar said during a police consent decree hearing this month, according to CBS News.
Baltimore lost about 279 officers in 2022, according to the judge, and currently has 2,150 officers on the force. All in, the city is short at least 600 officers, according to Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police President Mike Mancuso.
"We just can't take a hit like that in 2023," Bredar said.
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Police officers respond to Bennett Place and N. Fremont Avenue in Baltimore after a call went out that an officer is shot Wednesday. (AP)
The Baltimore Police Department needs to "make BPD the highest paid Police Department in the area," "working conditions need to improve drastically," and city’s retention policies need to be overhauled to monetarily incentivize cops to stay on the force, Mancuso said of the staffing shortages, CBS reported.
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If that is not done, Mancuso said, "we can all be assured that the mayor and commissioner are just defunding that Baltimore Police Department in an undercover manner and have no concern for the safety of the public."
Commissioner Michael Harrison of the Baltimore Police Department testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing entitled Law Enforcement Officer Safety: Protecting Those Who Protect and Serve on July 26, 2022 at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. The hearing was held as part of a bipartisan effort to address violence against police officers and the safety of law enforcement. ( Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images)
The city recorded 333 homicides last year and 688 non-fatal shootings. The figures are slightly lower than 2021, when 337 homicides and 726 non-fatal shootings were recorded, as well as in 2020 when 335 homicides and 721 nonfatal shootings were recorded.
Baltimore also landed in the second spot of a WalletHub study published this month titled "Cities with the Biggest Homicide Rate Problems," which compared 45 of the largest U.S. cities based on per capita homicides in Q4 2022, as well as per capita homicides in Q4 2022 vs. Q4 2021 and Q4 2020.
A pedestrian walks past the downtown Baltimore skyline in Federal Hill park in Baltimore on Friday, Nov. 20, 2020. Coronavirus infections continue to rise in the greater Washington region, with more than 5,000 new cases reported on Thursday, a daily record. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
There have already been at least 22 homicides so far this year.
Mancuso said the staffing shortage has already worsened this year, when four officers walked into the Southwest District and resigned earlier this month. They took positions at the Anne Arundel County Police Department "for better working conditions and pay," Mancuso said.
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Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott speaks during a Maryland Democratic Party's "Blue in '22" post-election unity event in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland, Aug. 1, 2022. (Craig Hudson for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
The FOP boss added that since Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison took the position more than four years ago, the police department has lost more than 300 officers than the number of officers that have been hired, CBS reported.
Harrison said he is aware of the staffing problems and is "pounding the table" to fix the issues.
"It's bigger than the police department can solve," Bredar added.
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An official with the Baltimore Police Department provided Fox News Digital with the department's union contract and a recent press release on hiring and retention incentives that show a $5,000 signing bonus for new recruits, a housing allowance, a student loan assistance program, and a $5,000 referral bonus program.
"This is about making a smart investment that should significantly enhance our efforts in attracting new recruits, while also incentivizing retention for our experienced officers," Harrison said, according to the press release provided to Fox.
"This regime, at the BPD, is in full survival mode due to a net loss of over 300 police officers under PC Harrison’s watch."
"We want to reward our officers for their hard work in attracting new employees to join the Department," the release stated.
"I am committed to improving working conditions, living conditions and the quality of life for all of our personnel and the residents of Baltimore. Together, we will show that the BPD is the Greatest Law Enforcement Agency in America."
The BPD official said that the department's starting salary "is the highest in the state," and pushed back that comments from the police union were not "factually correct."
Mancuso told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that "there is no doubt that the BPD is telling you that my post was not ‘factually correct,’" slamming the incentives as a "pittance of what is needed."
"I checked on those numbers today and they hold firm with more BPD officers in the pipeline to lateral to [Anne Arundel] County," Mancuso said. "This regime, at the BPD, is in full survival mode due to a net loss of over 300 police officers under PC Harrison’s watch. Crime is still out of control, as one would expect from there being no plan to address violent crime, for the past 4 years, and an exodus of officers.
"The incentives they listed are a pittance of what is needed and not one incentive to retain officers. I believe that these are nothing more than a way for them to say we are trying but in reality its just a way to continue to defund the BPD," he continued.
Community members have also sounded the alarm on the police staffing crisis, with local mom and teacher Blanca Tapahuasco attending the police consent decree hearing to hear updates on the force following the shootings of 12 teenagers this year.
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"We don't have enough police staff. Obviously, we heard this here. We have a net loss. We don't have a community that wraps around," Tapahuasco said, according to CBS News.
Fox News Digital reached out to Mayor Brandon Scott but his office did not responded by time of publication.
