The Baltimore Police Department uses Twitter to promote gun arrests and to alert residents to breaking crime. They also Tweet out historical info, such as anniversaries of the founding of the k-9 unit, or of the tactical team.
A few minutes ago, the department Tweeted out another historical fact in its "A look back" feature -- a salary chart for 1968. It's fun to look at, but I couldn't help noticing the timing -- shortly after the mayor attended a preliminary budget presentation for police and fire (details on the budget can be found here).
Unions for both agencies have been fighting against cutbacks in raises and pensions, while city officials say they've kept the departments funded without wholesale cuts or layoffs. But do city officials really want to compare salaries today to 1968? Is it an attempt to make the current conditions of cops seem generous, compared to their colleagues more than four decades ago?
The head of the city police union, Robert F. Cherry, had this to say: "Anyone with an sense looking at a comparison of salaries today to something in 1968 -- I mean, come on. If that's what the mayor wants to do, we can Tweet right back, 'Great, but here's where we stand in 2011.'"
UPDATE: Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the Twitter of the salary chart right after the budget hearing was pure coincidence, and that the person in his office who posted it didn't know about the hearing. "It's done to change the monotony of arrest, shooting, arrest posts," he said.
For the record, a city police officer today starts at $42,290 (up from about $28,000 in the mid-1990s). A city police sergeant makes about $60,000, and a lieutenant $68,000. Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III earns $193,800.
Here is Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's assessment of the budget:
The Fiscal 2012 Preliminary Budget plan was built around Mayor Rawlings-Blake’s priority outcomes for Baltimore: Better Schools, Safer Streets, Stronger Neighborhoods, Growing Economy, Innovative Government, and Cleaner and Healthier City. Below are Safer Streets highlights:
• Fully funds the Mayor’s aggressive hiring plan to recruit hundreds of new police officers in 2011 to fill police vacancies.
• Maintains funding for the Fire Department’s Suppression service, continuing three rotating closures (down from four in Fiscal 2010) and maintaining current services in all other functions.
• Fully funds Fire Department’s Emergency Medical Service (EMS.) Over 80% of all calls for service are EMS calls.
• Funds the Operation Safe Kids and Operation Safe Streets youth violence prevention programs, which have proven to reduce shootings in targeted neighborhoods.
• Funds operation of 515 crime cameras, which have been shown to reduce crime by 25% in covered areas.
• Increases funding for the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice to generate additional external grant support for the City’s public safety services.