Judge concerned about Baltimore violence and "unsustainable" police staffing shortages
BALTIMORE -- The Baltimore Police Department is losing officers at a drastic pace.
In the city's police consent decree hearing, a judge noted that the Baltimore Police Department lost roughly 279 officers in 2022.
"We just can't take a hit like that in 2023," Judge James K. Bredar said.
The department also hired 103 police officers last year.
Currently, there are 2,150 officers in the Baltimore Police Department.
Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison acknowledges staffing shortages and says, like the judge, he is "pounding the table" to fix them."
"It's bigger than the police department can solve," the judge added regarding the staff shortages.
Last week, Baltimore City's FOP president Mike Mancuso said four officers from the Baltimore Police Department walked into the Southwest District and resigned.
He said they joined the Anne Arundel County Police Department "for better working conditions and pay."
"I can't overstate the seriousness of the staffing issue," Bredar said.
The judge said Baltimore police must do something to keep and retain officers, and what's being done now "is not enough. You're going to have to do better."
According to Mancuso, in his letter, he said that since Harrison took over four years ago, Baltimore has lost more than 300 police officers than the number that has been hired.
He also mentioned that the city is at least 600 officers short of where the department needs to be.
And to get to that point, Mancuso said the Baltimore Police Department needs to "make BPD the highest paid Police Department in the area" and "working conditions need to improve drastically."
He also said there needs to be a retention policy that incentivizes longevity with pay bonuses.
"If this does not occur now, 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," Mancuso said.
Bredar also acknowledges "homicides and shootings refuse to abate."
In less than a month, there have been 22 homicides in Baltimore City.
At least 12 teenagers have been shot, including three murdered.
On Wednesday, a 15-year-old Forest Park High School student was killed in Northwest Baltimore.
"We are committed to doing what it takes to keep young people safe," Harrison said. "We need to change people's minds about, why they think they should have a gun, which will take the community's help and families help in the home, in the school and in the church of why they need to have a gun and use it to solve conflict.
"While we work to deploy officers to as many places as we can, and to deter as much as we can, it is about changing their thinking but also the strong delivery of punishment for consequences, and making sure they are rehabilitated and changed."
Blanca Topahuasco, a mother and educator from Southeast Baltimore, did what few other citizens have done: She came to the federal consent decree hearing herself to get an update on the problems facing Baltimore police.
She is heartbroken about the recent violence that has killed teenagers in the city who are the same ages as her own children.
"I have a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old," Topahuasco said. "This is another grieving family, and we all grieve as a community. Why do we keep losing kids?"
Topahuasco added, "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."
Also discussed during the consent decree hearing was that police said overall misconduct complaints against officers are down 11 percent.
Baltimore City State's Attorney Ivan Bates said it was important for him to attend the consent decree hearing, which was something he said his predecessor did not do.
He said it is critical for him to fully understand the issues facing the Baltimore Police Department.
"We are here to make sure they get the support, not only through the training, not only through the cases but also to have a better understanding of what consent decree really means, to understand the use of force and how it has decreased so much, to understand the staffing issues they have, but most importantly, to say we are starting this relationship off together and we are working together collaboratively and become better partners to have a safer Baltimore," Bates said.
