BALTIMORE — Change is coming to the Baltimore Police Department after they went millions of dollars over budget because of overtime payments last year.
The department is expected to begin a new schedule for patrol officers starting this weekend. The hope is to cut down on that overtime which caused the department to go millions of dollars over budget, and to help with the officer burnout that has caused a lot of turnover.
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The new schedule puts an end to the 10 hours per day, four-day work week, and have officers work eight and a half hour shifts, five days a week instead.
There have been 25 murders so far this year in the city, so officials are hoping this change will have more officers out on the streets and help reduce crime. This change was originally supposed to come last month, but there was a delay in the process.
The schedule change is supposed to officially go into effect this Sunday, which happens to be during the first ceasefire weekend of the year. No one has been killed in Baltimore in five days, so organizers are hoping to keep that trend going throughout this ceasefire weekend.
The year's first ceasefire started at midnight on Friday and will continue through Sunday.
Baltimore ceasefire weekends started two years ago and the goal, as always, is nobody kill anybody for the entire weekend. The ceasefire weekends happen four times a year on the first weekend of the month of February, August and November, as well as Mother's Day weekend.
Throughout the three-day stretch there are events planned across the city, including a pop up peace party and a peace vigil.
The first event of the weekend is a prayer session that starts at 8 a.m. on Friday. Click here for a full list of events.
