Baltimore officials debate police staffing reality as overtime costs continue

BALTIMORE (WBFF) — With the Baltimore Police Department operating about 20% below its budgeted staffing level, city officials are debating a bigger question: How should Baltimore control overtime if the department continues operating with fewer officers than the city has budgeted for?

That question came up Wednesday during a Baltimore City Board of Estimates meeting, where a new audit examined BPD’s practice of canceling officers’ scheduled days off to meet staffing needs.

“When you’re down 20% of what your budget are, you’re going to go spend more overtime. That’s just what’s going to happen,” said Baltimore Police Department Deputy Chief of Staff Andrew Smullian.

The staffing shortage prompted Baltimore City Council President Zeke Cohen to question whether the city needs to rethink how it talks about BPD’s persistent staffing gap.

“At some point, just to continue to say we have a 20% gap, we have X amount of officers short, like, you know, at what point do we reset the conversation and say, this is where it is?” Cohen said.

Cohen added that recruitment and retention efforts need to continue, while questioning whether the city needs to “reset the conversation” around BPD’s persistent staffing gap.

“We need to do better on the recruitment and retention, but we also can’t operate in a paradigm that is no longer reality,” Cohen said.

Mayor Brandon Scott, however, said changing the city’s expectations for police staffing isn’t as simple as lowering the target.

Scott pointed to Baltimore’s federal consent decree and the staffing model connected to it.

“We can’t even have that conversation up until the day that they say we’re no longer in consent decree,” Scott said.

The discussion comes as the city looks for ways to control the cost of filling staffing gaps.

The audit presented Wednesday focused on what BPD calls “H-days,” an officer’s regularly scheduled day off.

BPD can cancel those days when additional officers are needed because of staffing shortages, major events or critical incidents, according to the department.

Officials pointed to events such as Artscape and critical incidents including SWAT and barricade calls as examples of situations that can require additional officers.

BPD says canceling an officer’s scheduled day off is a last resort and that the department first looks for volunteers and other staffing options.

When an officer is required to work an H-day, the officer receives overtime for the hours worked and can also qualify for additional compensation.

A city auditor told the Board of Estimates that Baltimore’s approach is more generous than those of surrounding jurisdictions.

“Baltimore City has a, let’s say, more generous than other jurisdictions approach to these cancellations,” the auditor said.

The audit identified about $36,000 in H-day cancellation pay issued on Police Commissioner Days, when that additional cancellation pay should not have applied.

Officers can still receive overtime for working on Commissioner Days. The issue identified by auditors was the additional H-day cancellation pay.

BPD says it will seek to recover the overpaid money.

Auditors also raised concerns about how H-day cancellations and payments are documented and reviewed, finding BPD did not consistently maintain written approvals and other supporting documentation.

BPD says it is making changes to better track the payments and improve supervisor training and oversight.

The department also says it is reducing its use of canceled days off.

Smullian told the board BPD is down 38% in canceled days from fiscal year 2025 to fiscal year 2026, pointing to a reduction from about $3 million to about $1.7 million.

Retired police Sgt. Betsy Smith told FOX45 she disagrees with the idea of simply accepting that BPD may continue operating below its budgeted staffing level.

“That attitude of ‘this is just how it is,’ that’s an incredibly defeatist attitude,” Smith said. “And the number one thing that city leadership needs to do is look in the mirror and ask themselves, why are we short-staffed?”

Smith said city leaders should focus on why the department remains short-staffed rather than simply accepting the current staffing situation.

She also questioned whether relying on overtime and canceled days off to compensate for fewer officers is sustainable over the long term.

“Can you sustain this long term and just say, ‘Well, this is just how it’s going to be?’ You absolutely cannot,” Smith said.

Smith said she is particularly concerned about what could happen if officers are already working additional hours when the city faces a major emergency.

“When you use that forced overtime, when you have commissioner days just to provide staffing for patrol, and then you have that big disaster that happens, that’s a huge public safety issue,” Smith said.

Smith also raised concerns about the impact repeated overtime and canceled days off can have on officers, including fatigue, their families and whether officers ultimately decide to leave the department.