Police Commissioner Wants To Revamp Marijuana Rules to Attract New Officers
BALTIMORE (WJZ)--Filling vacancies in Baltimore City's police department is a tough task and the commissioner wants to change a hard-and-fast requirement--that he sees as a stumbling block to attracting more officers.
For Baltimore, recruiting is a challenge a slick video alone can't solve.
Baltimore is geographically one of the most competitive markets in the country--close enough to Washington, D.C.--with federal--and nearby suburban departments competing for the same, small pool of potential officers.
"I just think it's logical to look at some of these age-old hiring standards and have a discussion about changing them," said Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis.
Davis says one of those standards is marijuana use.
He wants to throw out mandates prohibiting recruits from smoking more than 20 times in their lives, or five times after age 21.
"With this particular marijuana use standard, I can't apply discretion. I've got zero flexibility," said Davis.
The FBI has considered doing the same thing.
"One of the challenges we have is getting a good workforce," said FBI Director James Comey in 2014. "At the same time, our attitudes and states' attitudes are leading more and more of them to try it."
So far this year in Baltimore, the number of police recruits is up. It's up by double digits in minority communities, but only a fraction of those applicants ever pass the background checks and make it to the streets as full time police officers.
"It's a very healthy conversation to have, but I'd be conservative before I'd tinker with any of the standards," said Public safety expert Rob Weinhold with Fallston Group. "It's harder now to be a police officer now than at any point in history."
While recent massacres of officers in Baton Rouge and Dallas could have a chilling impact on recruitment nationwide--Commissioner Davis is staying optimistic.
"We'll get people who otherwise never considered being a police officer to say I want to be part of that profession because it has such an impact on our quality of life as Americans."
The commissioner does want to keep in place a rule--that you can't join the force if you smoked marijuana three years before applying.
The starting salary for a city police officer is just under $49,000, plus benefits.
