BALTIMORE (AP) - Police are running short on working patrol cars, and police commanders and union officials say the shortage is forcing authorities to cancel some initiatives.
Department statistics show nearly half of the city’s 300 marked police cars designated for patrol have been parked at city garages needing repair. On Thursday, 41 percent of the department’s marked police cars that are designated for patrol were in need of repairs and out of commission.
City police officials say a shortage of the marked vehicles has forced them, at times, to take several actions: putting two officers in a car, making some walk and ordering others to patrol in unmarked vehicles.
The status of cars, commanders said, has forced most of the 150 detectives and administrators recently reassigned to the patrol division to double up in cars and work on foot.
When two officers are assigned to one car and asked to patrol twice the area, it hurts response times, said Dan Fickus, president of the local police union.
“It is a big problem,” Fickus said “They want to do the job, but they don’t have the equipment to do the job with. It shackles them.”
Department leaders blame the shortage mostly on an aging fleet, but they also note an increase in police-involved accidents.
Mayor Martin O’Malley said he doesn’t see the problem as a shortage, but rather mismanagement. It’s “a situation where one area of the department has a surplus while another doesn’t have enough cars,” O’Malley said.
The mayor said he has ordered the department to reshuffle its fleet to better meet demands. If after reshuffling the fleet it becomes clear the department still needs additional cars, O’Malley said that he would give more consideration to the department’s request to purchase more cars.
Police officials say they are not at odds with the mayor, and Chief of Patrol J. Charles Gutberlet III said he is shuffling around some vehicles. He said he has found 20 marked cars being used by units that did not need them, such as the one that attends to the police helicopter. But Clark said getting new cars is a top priority.