Public Safety Committee Receives Update on Police Department Staffing

Today, legislative analyst Susan J. Farag of the Montgomery County Council’s Advisory Commission on Policing provided the Public Safety Committee with the following overview of the Montgomery County Police Department’s staffing:

• 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.

Overview: The police staffing shortage is not new, it is national, and it persists. Departments struggle
to adapt as they experience high numbers of retirements and resignations, and many younger
members of the workforce are not choosing policing as a profession. While the County has made significant progress shifting certain responsibilities away from police, such as its robust expansion of mobile crisis outreach teams (MCOTs)1 that respond and provide support and services for individuals experiencing behavioral health concerns, there will always been a need for Police Officers to respond to calls for service for crimes (particularly those of violence) and conduct
professional criminal investigations.

Police departments are examining innovative ways to meet community safety needs. Not only are departments faced with shrinking numbers of sworn staff, but the nature of crime and disorder continues to change as well. For example, social media has fueled an auto theft trend and has facilitated car meetups that take over entire streets and intersections. The internet also provides some individuals with an often-false sense of invisibility, who then call in bomb threats or swatting incidents, often from overseas.

This region has unique challenges as well, with a
growing number of protests and rallies that require event management such as traffic direction and
crowd control, to threats against high-profile public officials5 that require investigation and protection. Some of these events require large police responses that further diminish available staff to respond to more typical calls for service. These changes require departments to do more with less, while providing flexibility to address emerging public safety needs.
Against this challenging and changing landscape, MCPD is experiencing its highest sworn vacancy rate in the past 10 years, with most attrition occurring after 2019.

Overall, the Department has 194 fewer officers than it did that year, as filled positions have dropped from 1,295 to 1,101. The authorized sworn complement has also decreased since then, from 1,307 to 1,280. Today, the current vacancy rate is 14% and reflects 179 vacancies.

Charts and additional information available here.