Like many police departments across the D.C. region, Montgomery County’s police department is struggling to fill vacancies.
According to a report by Montgomery County Council’s legislative staff, the department has a 14% vacancy rate. While the latest class of police recruits will add eight officers, the number of officers slated to retire in the next three years went from 48 in November to 71 as of March.
A new report from PFM, a consulting firm, suggested ways to address the issue in the detective ranks by using nonsworn professional staff members.
Ronal Serpas, who worked on PFM’s consulting report, said during a briefing with the council’s Public Safety Committee on Monday, “Candidly, your investigators are handling more complex cases, requiring new skills and technology.”
Serpas also told police officials sitting in on the meeting that the department’s “staffing models are outdated.”
When detective units are understaffed, Serpas said, “detectives have higher caseloads, investigations take longer, clearance rates decrease and proactive investigations of repeat offenders — the people who are the small percentage who repeat offend — are often lost in the wind.”
Sitting as a member of a panel before the committee, Montgomery County Police Chief Marc Yamada said that while staffing is an issue within the department, cases are brought “to a successful closure.”
“I think our homicide rate was close to — if not at — 100% last year, which, I think, is pretty amazing,” he added.
The report from PFM suggested police make use of nonsworn, or civilian, professional staff to help lighten the load on detectives and investigators.
Council member Sidney Katz, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, asked, “We can’t hire our vacancies? How are we hiring the additional personnel?”
Assistant Chief Willie Parker-Loan, who leads the Investigative Services Bureau, underscored the difficulties the department faces by explaining he draws from patrol officers who’ve graduated from the academy.
“If we don’t have people going into the academy to bolster the patrol services numbers, then again, it’s hard for the chief to approve to allow me to open up position vacancy announcements to bolster the detective’s section,” he said.
Yamada said when it comes to staffing, he’d like to get the ability to retain experienced officers in the county’s retirement program.
Under the current staffing agreement, eligible officers with 25 years of service can enroll in the program, which allows them to draw from their retirement pension while continuing to work for a maximum of three years before they retire.
Yamada said he’d like to see that three-year period extended to five years: “In order to train the new officers, I need to have officers in place with that expertise; the best way to do it is with a five-year or longer drop than five years.”
After the meeting, Katz told WTOP the council agrees with the notion more police are needed, but said competition for police officers across the region is fierce.
“Of course, agencies take people from other agencies,” he said. “So we have to make certain that we can continue to be competitive.”
That comes at a time when the county is facing tough budget choices.
On Friday, Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich announced his $8 billion budget plan for fiscal 2027. The proposal includes property and income tax increases as well as creating new special taxing districts.
The county council will spend the next two months going through the budget before exercising its budget authority with a final vote on the spending plan in May.
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