A staff report for the County Council’s public safety committee reveals that ongoing staffing, recruitment and retention issues within the Montgomery County police department persist—and are worsening in some cases.
According to the report, resignations and retirements of police officers increased 64% from 2021 to 2022. The current sworn officer vacancy rate is 10%, meaning there are 129 openings out of 1,281 authorized officer positions. In 2021, there were 46 sworn vacancies.
“If the Department cannot improve hiring and retention rates, it faces a staffing shortage of up to 229 positions by the end of calendar [year] 2025,” the council staff report said. More than 30% of sworn officers are currently eligible for some form of retirement.
Council staff have provided regular updates on police staffing, recruitment, and retention in recent years. The reports have been part of an ongoing debate about how public safety should evolve in the county, and how much policing is needed in order to ensure residents feel safe.
The public safety committee is scheduled to discuss the report with senior police officials when it meets at 9:30 a.m. Monday. County police declined to comment on the report on Friday.
The issues discussed in the report also affect the civilian professional staff, which is facing a vacancy rate of 18%, for a total of 136 vacancies out of 763 positions, according to the report. The county’s Emergency Communication Center has also been impacted; 65 of the 198 authorized jobs are unfilled.
The staffing shortage at the communication center has led to longer call response times, which includes the call to the center and “field unit travel time to the incident,” according to the report. In 2012, the response time was 7.06 minutes. In 2022, it had increased to 9.2 minutes, according to the report.
County Council Member Sidney Katz (D-District 3), who chairs the council’s public safety committee, said in an interview Friday that the report was concerning. But he said he wanted to wait until Monday’s meeting with police leaders before commenting on how issues related to recruitment, staffing, and retention should be addressed.
County Executive Marc Elrich and other council members have said in recent years that police staffing remains a core issue related to public safety—an idea cemented by the findings in the recent council committee report. Part of the issue, according to the report, is recruitment to replace officers who are retiring or leaving—since 2018, applications to the police department have dropped 38%.
“The Department continues to struggle to recruit enough qualified officers to address attrition,” the report states. “The budgeted recruit class size has not been met in years. Recent recruit classes have had about 15 recruits each. Given this is a regional challenge, there is further pressure because surrounding departments have been competing to get the best applicants from a very limited pool.”
Lee Holland, president of FOP Lodge #35, the county’s police union, wrote in an email to MoCo360 that the union was finalizing a letter to the council, highlighting why there have been retention and recruitment issues within the police department.
“Recruitment and retention are at an all-time low due to various reasons which will be highlighted in our letter. Lodge 35 believes a starting bonus needs to be studied to see how effective they really are. The FOP and county have agreed to a starting bonus for the next academy class which will also consist of a study,” Holland wrote.
Elrich and the council did approve an increase in the starting salary for police officers in order to make salaries more competitive with other jurisdictions. The county department currently offers $60,265 as its starting pay for new officers with no experience—which is in the middle of the pack when compared to salaries offered in neighboring counties and Washington, D.C.
The Metropolitan Police Department in the District offers the highest starting salary at $66,419. That department, however, also offers a $20,000 signing bonus, according the report—and several other neighboring Maryland counties offer some level of a signing bonus, too, starting at $5,000.
In Maryland, Prince George’s County offers an annual salary of $57,889 to new officers with no experience, along with a $10,000 signing bonus. Howard County offers $61,194 and a $10,000 signing bonus to new officers.
Katz said he supports adding a signing bonus for new county officers, but didn’t specify how much it should be, saying more discussion was needed.
Some residents have criticized county officials for moving too slowly to address public safety issues, saying that policies enacted in recent years related to police training, accountability measures such as the state-mandated creation of the Police Accountability Board and Administrative Charging Committee, and other factors have led to the staffing and retention issues.
In response, Katz said: “Any issue of crime is a huge concern. However, Montgomery County in general is a very safe place, and it’s a combination of many things why we’re a safe place … in public safety, it’s not just a police issue, it’s a mental health issue, it’s an education issue … . Are there specifics of where it hasn’t been safe? Yes, and we need to figure out what’s the best way to alleviate those issues.”
