By Adam Pagnucco.
I have written many times about Montgomery County’s problems with police department staffing. Here is a sample.
MoCo’s Recent Record on Police Staffing, Part One (February, 2023): Police positions declined from FY19 through FY23 as the county removed officers from schools and a county task force proposed abolishing half of the officers working in East County.
MoCo’s Recent Record on Police Staffing, Part Two (February, 2023): County council staff analyst Susan Farag had been warning the council about rising police attrition and vacancies for years.
Five New Shocking Facts About Police Staffing (February, 2023): Farag issued a new warning about rising resignations, retirements and call times and an alarming 36% vacancy rate in the 911 center.
Police Critically Understaffed as Crime Keeps Rising (April, 2023): Crime continues to rise as the police department remains “critically understaffed.”
County Police Reducing Call Response in Rockville and Gaithersburg (September, 2023): Staffing problems caused the county police department to reduce its presence in the county’s two largest municipalities.
The Police Staffing Crisis Gets Worse (October, 2023): The officer vacancy rate is projected to rise to 19% in July 2025.
All of that may pale besides a new revelation being discussed by the council’s Public Safety Committee today.
Susan Farag, the council’s public safety analyst, has a new packet out today with updates on many of the above issues. Here is her summary.
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- The Department’s sworn strength has dropped from 1,295 Officers in 2019 to 1,101 in 2024 – a loss of 194 Officers over the past five years.
- There are 179 sworn vacancies now (14% vacancy rate).
- There are also 137 professional staff vacancies (18% vacancy rate).
- The 911 Emergency Communication Center (ECC) has 64 vacant positions (43% vacancy rate).
- Vacancies have operational impacts: patrol overtime jumped 54% and priority response times increased more than 17% from 2019 to 2023.
- Sworn Attrition slowed during 2023, but that may be as result of enhanced pension multipliers and other benefits that will be effective January 1, 2025.
- This pension benefit change may also significantly increase sworn retirements in 2025.
- Recent recruit classes have averaged 23 recruits each, which remains too low to address current attrition.
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This is all depressingly familiar. The 43% vacancy rate in the 911 center is particularly shocking and is a direct threat to public safety. Also astounding are the charts below on sworn filled positions and vacancy rate.
But the real news is about changes to the pension program and its relationship with attrition.
Let’s connect a few dots.
Dot One. Farag writes, “Historically, MCPD has had very low attrition rates, hovering between one and 1.5 officers per month (plus retirements). Post-COVID, this rate rapidly increased to four officers per month (plus retirements).” The turnover rate hit a high of 12.5% in 2022.
Dot Two. However, turnover has since declined sharply to 2.7% in the first six months of 2024. That has coincided with reductions in enrollment in the Discontinued Retirement Service Program (DSRP), which allows police to collect pensions while working for up to three years. Why is this happening?
Dot Three. “As of March 1, 32% of sworn staff are eligible for some form of retirement.” Police officers could be retiring right now, but they’re not. Again, why?
Dot Four. Back in August, the council passed Bill 19-23E, which significantly improved police pension benefits. These improvements take effect on January 1, 2025.
Farag connects these dots emphatically. She writes the following:
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Council staff cautions this [pension benefit] change may be the reason attrition and entry in to the DRSP have slowed for the past year, and it may have adverse impacts on staffing in 2025. These changes may encourage Officers to retire or enter the DRSP at 34 rather than 36 years of service. Not only would that reduce staff numbers, it may exacerbate the “brain drain” as more senior leadership and other subject matter experts leave.
The actuarial report provided to the Office of Labor Relations also assumed that Officers would delay retirement until after the January 1, 2025 effective date:
“For Group F, Scenario 4 (and combined scenario)
Because the proposal has an effective date of January 1, 2025, members may choose to delay retirement until after January 1, 2025 in order to receive a benefit (at a later age) based on a higher benefit accrual rate. Therefore, modified lower retirement rates were assumed for plan years ending June 30, 2023 and June 30, 2024, and modified higher retirement rates were assumed for plan year ending June 30, 2025.”
The Department also advises that this may lead to: “more people entering DRSP in the spring of 2025. Due to the number of Officers with 25 years of service and a favorable job market, it is possible that we will see a large number of Officers enter the DRSP. The Department is considering ways to gather information on what might actually occur.”
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The bottom line: in ten months, when improved pension benefits kick in, up to a third of the county’s police officers could be headed out the door. Additional elements of context not included in Farag’s memo are consideration by the council of legislation by Will Jawando restricting police search powers and the county executive’s recommended FY25 police budget, which eliminates a net 22 full-time equivalent positions (mostly in long-term vacancies).
This is a police staffing bomb that, upon detonation, could annihilate the county’s public safety apparatus. Let the criminals rejoice. And let the public beware.