I didn’t think so.
Apparently, no one else does either.
From BaltimoreCBSLocal.com:
Baltimore Police Working To Retain Officers Despite High Crime & Overtime Issues
by Mike Hellgren
BALTIMORE (WJZ) — There’s growing concern over a shortage of police officers in Baltimore City. Despite ramping up recruiting efforts, there’s still big turnover in the department.
For only the second time in the last two decades, Baltimore hits 100 homicides before the end of April.
The murder rate is up 30 percent over last year — a grim milestone. The murder that pushed the city over the 100-mark happened on Lombard Street, one of the busiest intersections downtown.
The number of officers is at its lowest point that it’s been in the past decade, which has become cause for concern.
The city is operating with hundreds of fewer officers than at any point over the past decade.
Considering Baltimore PD, the city itself, its contentious relationship with its mayor and attorney general, this is not a shocking situation with which the police department finds itself.
The department is spending almost $1 million dollars a month just on overtime to keep up.
That’s what immediately occurs when you have insufficient personnel to cover various shifts and assignments. It’s a stopgap measure and usually challenges the budget of the applicable city or county. It’s also a measure that generally irritates the specific county supervisors, city mayors or managers involved.
This is very telling information with a rather insightful statement proffered from a citizen.
It’s noticeable to community activist Ericka Alston-Buck, with Penn-North Kids Safe Zone.
“When I walk up to one of the officers, the first thing I ask is what district are you out of, because 9o percent of the time, they’re not a western district officer, so everyone is working overtime.”
“There needs to be something attractive about being a police officer here in Baltimore City. I don’t see the attraction,” she says.
Apparently neither do a lot of other people.
Because these days that, above, is the attraction. Translated: not so much. How many Millennials and GenZr’s are interested in that kind of confrontation, with no reaction allowed?
The issue just didn’t emerge this week. BPD began having recruitment issues directly following the Freddie Gray incident.
What to do? I know. Relax standards. Hello, anyone remember Rampart?
A bright spot now for recruitment efforts: Maryland regulators just relaxed standards for marijuana use, making more people eligible to become officers.
Outstanding. More officers laboring under the influence of THC. Good for the manufacturer of Doritos, perhaps.
The beginning salary for a city officer is just under $49,000 plus benefits.
That’s what starting custodians make in California schools. Custodians who have no responsibility to wield power, arrest people or utilize deadly force.
This at a time when Baltimore just hit 100 homicides prior to the end of April, up 30% from last year at the same time. But pay close attention; the issue in Baltimore isn’t about pay necessarily. It’s about applicants. There aren’t enough. They can’t fill the positions they already have, much less attempt to expand the department.
Why would that be?
It stems from a number of factors, to include Black Lives Matter and the “hands up don’t shoot” lie.
The Ferguson Effect is another factor as the label of “overpolicing” has been charged to American departments. The uptick in the shootings of officers is also an issue, not necessarily the consequence of a given call but specifically the ambushing and targeting for assassination of police officers while on duty.
Baltimore is now also operating under a federal consent decree as it has been accused of over policing.
Some in Chicago, for example, are even calling for the entire defunding of the Chicago Police Department.
Following the Freddie Gray death, state attorney general Marilyn Mosby charged seven Baltimore Police officers, five of whom are black. Not one officer has been found guilty, and charges were dropped entirely on three of the officers. Over policing? How about Mosby’s over-charging? A federal judge in January allowed a suit against Mosby for malicious prosecution to proceed.
People are now concluding there are too many marks in the negative column as opposed to the positive column regarding a police officer career in the city of Baltimore.
But it isn’t only Baltimore affected. Police recruiting around the country is down and becoming quite difficult. The attrition rate for police officers (14%) is higher than both nursing (12%) and teaching (13%). Pay, “disqualifying behaviors,” and credit problems are also issues,
This all gets down to riots, this gets down to crime, and this gets down to war. What commonality do rioters, criminals and despots have? They are all predators of opportunity and weakness.
With that in common, what happens when people stage a riot and there is no one to respond? What occurs when there is a crime and there is no one to respond? What happens when there is a war and there is no one to defend the nation?
What happens when you run out of Sheepdogs to defend the Sheep against the wolves?
Ask the citizens of Berkeley on Saturday, April 15th, when Americans were left to fight it out on the streets of the United States as law enforcement officers were either forced to or willingly allowed violence to occur directly in front of their eyes.
What happens then?
BZ
