Morale Tanked

The morale is tanked at the Baltimore Police Department. If things weren’t bad enough, the police commissioner has cancelled all leave for Saturday, June 17.

Law Enforcement Today received a copy of an official BPD email; all identifiers have been removed from the image.

This email states that Police Commissioner Kevin Davis has cancelled all leave for Saturday, June 17, 2017. Is there an emergency, riots, or high profile dignitaries in town? No!

The reason he has cancelled all leave is because they don’t have enough officers to meet the minimum mandatory requirement.

This was after he announced that all patrol officers would be required to work 12 hour shifts, to supplement the drafting of officers that are already working overtime. He also announced earlier this week that non-patrol officers and sergeants would be required to work patrol to help make the minimum numbers.

Even with all that, he has failed to keep the citizens of Baltimore and it’s police officers safe by maintaining the minimum number of officers.

Consequently, manpower is so low, crime is so high, violent crime and murders are at near record numbers, and they have not yet hit the heat of summer.

Recruiting Nose Dived

BPD can’t get enough new officers to keep pace with those leaving the agency through retirement, laterals to other agencies, or the veteran officers resigning.

I won’t go into details about other things that have contributed to the tanked morale, recruiting and retention problems. For instance, the Freddie Gray arrests; riots; broken promises to officers when their pension system was changed, which negatively effected veteran officers; broken promises to retirees; or the myriad of other problems affecting the Baltimore Police Department.

All of these factors have contributed to the manpower woes in Baltimore.

Police Commissioner Questioned

How does the police commissioner, who is tasked with overseeing this agency, still have a job?

The simple fact is this, Police Commissioner Davis has failed in his most basic function, he has not been able to provide and staff the minimum manpower to protect the City of Baltimore.

Moreover, BPD has been a State Agency since approximately 1860. However, in 1978 the State gave the mayor the power to pick the Baltimore police commissioner. Therefore, if the mayor of Baltimore won’t do the right thing by making immediate changes to the top command staff, then it is time for the governor of Maryland to step in and take control of the Baltimore Police Department.

– John “Jay” Wiley, LET Radio Host, Baltimore Police Sergeant (Ret.)