BALTIMORE, July 22 (UPI) -- The Baltimore police commissioner warns the city has a critical shortage of officers, threatening crime-fighting efforts.
The department has 3,119 sworn officer positions, from patrol officers to those in the highest ranks. At the moment, 106 of those positions are unfilled, The Baltimore Sun reports.
Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III told an interviewer with Maryland Public Television that attrition levels are high.
"We're operating at very conservative staffing levels across all the units," he said. "The gap is only going to widen."
A total of 42 officers retired or resigned in June, more than double the number of departures during the same month in each of the two previous years. At least some of those who left did so because of changes in the pension system -- including an increase in officers' contributions, a new limit on pension cost-of-living increases and a requirement that all officers who now have less than 15 years of service must put in 25 before they are eligible for pensions.
