By Adam Pagnucco.
Amid a recent onslaught of shooting, stabbing, car theft, attempted kidnapping and homicide, concern about crime is rising and politicians are starting to pay attention. But here is one thing they are not eager to discuss:
One potential contributor to crime is the county’s recent record on police staffing.
Consider the following facts.
1. Since FY19 – the last budget under former County Executive Ike Leggett – the police department’s budget has grown an average of 1.9% per year. However, its full-time-equivalent positions (FTEs) and full-time positions have both declined since FY20 and are close to what they were in FY17 – six years ago.
The nature of the staffing changes is noteworthy. In FY22, the county eliminated 29.5 FTEs, of which 22 were officers, another was a crime analyst and 4 more came from the elimination of the central auto theft section. In FY23, the county added 28.5 FTEs but most were in management services or the chief’s office. Two were crossing guards. This is a net shift away from officers on the street and towards back office services.
2. In March 2021, County Executive Marc Elrich announced that he was removing police officers from schools. Sixteen months later, Bethesda Beat reported that the MCPS community wanted officers back in schools “following a spike in criminal activity in and around schools in the county this year, including a Jan. 21 shooting at Col. Zadok Magruder High School in January that critically injured one student.” Officers have now returned, but instead of being called school resource officers, they are now called community engagement officers and “are expected to have work stations in school buildings, but not spend their entire work days there.”
3. In 2021, Elrich’s Reimagining Public Safety Task Force proposed abolishing police officers in schools; cutting the number of police officers in Silver Spring, Wheaton, Olney and East County in half; fully automating traffic enforcement and studying whether officers should always carry guns. The task force’s co-chair, Bernice Mireku-North, was recently appointed by the county’s Democratic central committee to the House of Delegates.
More recently, the county council’s Policing Advisory Commission told the public that it had decided “that traffic enforcement practices in the County do not meet basic tests of effectiveness, efficiency, and equal enforcement, and that a change in mission, focus, and strategy is necessary.” But when it invited commentary from the public, residents replied that they wanted MORE traffic enforcement. This lined up with East County residents who demanded more policing and said they felt unsafe at a forum held by Council Member Kristin Mink. This is the very same area where Elrich’s task force wanted to cut the number of police officers in half.
4. Bethesda Beat has often reported on problems in police recruiting and attrition. In 2019, the publication reported that recruitment had fallen by half in the preceding six years. Bethesda Beat reported this quote from then-Acting Chief Marcus Jones:
When you do a job that’s being highly criticized on a daily basis, we have to ask ourselves, how do we find good candidates that really want to be under that type of scrutiny… If you feel like you’re being scrutinized all the time, then this may not be the career that you want, so we understand that that may be a roadblock for us.
In 2020, Bethesda Beat reported, “Attrition is spiking within the Montgomery County Police Department, and the number of officers signaling an intent to leave in the next several years has nearly doubled in a year’s time — even as recruitment lags and crime soars.”
In 2021, Jones – now the permanent police chief – said that some officers might leave Montgomery County to go to places “more accepting” of law enforcement.
Finally, last year Bethesda Beat reported that police department attrition could result in 18% fewer officers by 2025.
Let’s remember that during this period of time, the county government was cutting officer positions in the police department.
If you think the above record is eye-opening, wait until you read Part Two.