By Carson Swick
Baltimore Sun
BALTIMORE — The Baltimore Police Department has made strides to address the vacancies contributing to excessive officer overtime, Commissioner Richard Worley told members of the Baltimore City Council Tuesday night.
Recent staffing shortages have forced first responders across Baltimore to work copious amounts of overtime, taking a toll on both employee morale and city budgets. BPD spent $64 million on overtime in the 2024 calendar year, and the city’s total overtime burden could reach $150 million in 2025, a May 22 hearing revealed.
Clearly expecting the council to grill him on the issue on Tuesday, Worley touted BPD’s hiring efforts. The commissioner said his department has seen a net increase of 47 new sworn officers since October 2024, bringing its total to 2,023 after dipping below 2,000 officers last fall.
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BPD currently has 492 vacancies, but expects about 150 potential officers to graduate from its police academy by the end of 2025. An expansive ad campaign to recruit new officers from within the city is now in effect and will further boost recruitment, Worley said.
“By the early part of next year, I think we’re going to be up close to where we only have about 350 vacancies, and it continues on that trend. In three or four years, we’ll be up where we should be, which is 2,500 [sworn officers],” Workley said.
City Council President Zeke Cohen asked Worley how many of the 492 vacant positions had not been filled in at least 18 months. The commissioner replied it was the “majority” of them. He said his more aggressive approach to boosting staffing would be “different” from previous Commissioner Michael Harrison.
“He was my mentor, but I have a different opinion,” Worley said of Harrison. “I think we will fill these positions within the next three to five years. Because right now, by the end of the year, I think we’re gonna have 100 more cops than we have now.”
With the department about 80% staffed, the total number of overtime hours worked by BPD employees is expected to drop to 898,000 this year from 914,000 last year. The implementation of stricter overtime request approvals via the human resources software Workday has also helped manage the overload, Worley and Deputy BPD Commissioner Kevin Jones said.
Police budget
The department’s proposed $614 million budget for the 2026 fiscal year is a 3.57% increase over fiscal 2025 levels. A decline in state funding from $42.34 million last year to $36.83 million this year has prompted the city to pull considerably more from its operating budget for the police department.
The “Criminal Investigation Division” and “Compliance Bureau” services received the largest increases, getting about $9.5 million and $7.5 million more than in fiscal 2025, respectively.
Anticipated “Police Patrol” expenses dipped slightly from about $226.5 million last year to $224.5 million this year. Despite the decrease, this service includes $4.2 million more in allocated funds for sworn overtime expenses than was seen in fiscal 2025.
Have a news tip? Contact Carson Swick at cswick@baltsun.com.
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