BALTIMORE, Md. — A week in as Baltimore Police Commissioner and Michael Harrison met with city council members to lay out some of his plans.
The day after a bill passed onto the Senate to put the police department in Baltimore City control, the city council held their monthly oversight hearings on the departments budget and crime stats and strategy.
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One of the ways Harrison plans to reduce the staggering overtime budget is by moving sworn officers filling civilian roles in the department back on the street and those positions with civilians.
“We’ve been spending $46-47 million a year on overtime- which is almost 10 percent of the departments budget. We need to work aggressively to bring that cost down. We’ve had some changes with the schedule that should lead to about $200,000 per pay period. We need to stay focused on that. The commissioner has expressed his willingness and that it is a priority to stay focused on that," said Councilman Eric Costello.
Councilman Brandon Scott says violent crime is up from last year and they need to look at ways to get those numbers way down.
