Posted on 05/18/22
| News Source: FOX45
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and Police Commissioner Michael Harrison are expected to announce a new policing initiative Wednesday. They said the plan will focus on what they call intelligent deployment of police patrols.
FOX45 has learned part of that deployment strategy will include, the "False Alarm Reduction Program," an initiative to help keep officers on the streets and not responding to false burglar alarms at businesses across the city.
"The problem is if we have our officers out doing things that are not actually helping with public safety, we would prefer not to have our officers responding to false alarms instead of being out here on the streets," said James Bentley, spokesman for the Mayor's Office.
The city leaders call it smart policing.
But Beth Hawks, owner of Zelda's Zen in Fells Point, believes the real issue should be addressing the staffing shortage at the police department not simply stretching the understaffed force that it has.
"We don't understand why there is such a problem hiring police officers," Hawks said. "We are at a crisis right now because they're expecting a record-breaking year for homicides," she added.
At police headquarters in January, 38 of the city's newest recruits officially became police officers. The department has said it's about 330 officers short.
But despite a doubling of recruitment efforts and an expansion of recruit classes, the city can't seem to get ahead because so many other officers are leaving.