Montgomery County Police Department faces critical staff shortage
Montgomery County Police Department facing critical staffing shortage
Montgomery County is sounding the alarm over a serious police staffing shortage, with fears that these vacancies could impact public safety in Maryland's largest jurisdiction.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. - The Montgomery County Police Department is sounding the alarm over a serious police staffing shortage, expressing fears that these vacancies could impact public safety in Maryland's largest jurisdiction.
By the numbers:
Montgomery County police leaders are stressing the severity of this staffing issue, saying that they have been relying heavily on overtime, but that strategy is not sustainable.
Now, they are in need of 103 patrol officers just to balance coverage.
Police Chief Marc Yamada, along with others, outlined the results of recent data for a council committee Monday morning.
The department is authorized to have 1275 sworn employees, but sworn officer vacancies have climbed to 15%. Patrol vacancies are even higher at 19%.
Overtime pay is now equal to 12% of base pay, and that's leaving a lot of officers overworked and burned out.
Dig deeper:
Another issue is that the department can't hire fast enough to keep up with retirements and resignations.
"The reason we see the hiring rate lower is we want quality over quantity," MCPD Assistant Chief Nicholas Augustine said. "We are sticking to our standards of what we accept to be Montgomery County police officers."
With that said, they are changing background requirements and are hopeful that hiring numbers will go up in next July's report.
The county has set aside $160,000 for a full staffing review, but police say that isn't enough to study the problem top to bottom.
What they're saying:
Chief Yamada does credit his team for not sacrificing safety.
"I think we've demonstrated as a department that we don’t have an increase in response times," Yamada said. "Yes, our overtime is up, but crime is down. With the cards we've been dealt, we're managing very effectively as we explore a number of different options."
Monday’s briefing is looking at both short-term and long-term solutions and what needs to be invested in order to keep the force on its feet.