By Adam Pagnucco.
Last March, I wrote about the police staffing bomb – a potential desertion of county police officers provoked by an increase to their pension benefits taking effect in January 2025. One month before the bomb is due to explode, the Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD) estimates that it could cost the department almost ten percent of its sworn officers. That comes on top of soaring vacancies and elevated crime rates in the wake of the pandemic.
A new packet by county council public safety analyst Susan Farag lays out the challenges. Here are a few of her findings.
Police vacancies remain high.
Farag notes, “MCPD had its largest authorized sworn complement in 2019, with 1,307 positions, of which, just 12 were vacant. Over the past several years, 25 positions were cut, and several others have been civilianized. The current authorized sworn complement is 1,278, which is back down to 2016 levels.” The sworn vacancy rate was 1% in 2019 and it’s 13% now.
These charts illustrate sworn complement and vacancies. They occur in the context of rising crime after the pandemic with a slight drop last year.
Patrol availability is even worse than overall vacancies. Because of officers on no duty or light duty, 77% of patrol officers are available for duty. The lowest rate is in the 6th District (Gaithersburg/Montgomery Village), where 71% of patrol officers are available for duty.
Response times have increased since 2019.
Higher vacancies are linked to longer response times. Countywide, routine response times have increased from 12:21 in 2019 to 13:14 now while priority response times have increased from 5:11 to 5:52 during the same period. The 5th District (Germantown) led the increase in priority response times between 2019 and 2024, from 6:00 to 7:18.
Overtime is waaaaaay over budget.
Farag writes, “The use of overtime has increased substantially over the past two years, not just for Patrol, but for the entire department. In FY24, the approved overtime budget totaled $11.6 million, but the department spent $19.9 million.” Patrol overspent its overtime budget by 86% in FY24.
MCPD predicts that the staffing bomb could cost it more than 100 officers.
The staffing bomb is a set of pension benefit improvements contained in Bill 19-23E, which was proposed by the county executive and passed unanimously by the county council in August 2023.
Farag writes, “The Department’s enhanced pension benefit becomes effective in January 2025, and MCPD estimates it may lose more than 100 officers, either to immediate retirement (30+) or entrance in the Discontinued Service Retirement Plan (DRSP) (70+).” Additionally, she notes, “Recent recruit classes have averaged 25 recruits each, which remains too low to address historic attrition.”
The last thing that a police department with high vacancies, budget-busting overtime and elevated crime rates needs is a loss of nearly ten percent of its officers. And yet that’s what could happen. The county’s response to this looming threat is to commission a staffing study at a cost of $158,665. But wait – the study only covers the Investigative Services Bureau (ISB), which comprises roughly one-sixth of the department’s positions. Patrol, the department’s largest bureau, is not covered. Farag writes, “MCPD chose ISB rather than Patrol Services Bureau because the Department advises it has the capability to conduct a patrol workload analysis.”
Aided by its new drone program, MCPD oversaw a slight reduction in crime last year. But with its existing strains and a staffing bomb set to go off, it’s an open question as to whether any progress, however tentative, will continue.