Baltimore police officers, cashing in on a lucrative retirement package, are expected to leave the force in droves this summer -- sparking a frantic recruitment drive to fill the depleted ranks.
More than 600 senior officers -- nearly 20 percent of the 3,188-member department -- are eligible to retire, taking with them checks worth tens of thousands of dollars and for a few as much $200,000.
Estimates of the likely number of departures vary, with the police union pegging it at 350 officers and the department predicting no more than 250.
But even the lower figure will create a serious shortage in an already understaffed department struggling to keep up with attrition.
"It's difficult to say exactly what's going to happen," said Col. Elbert Shirey, one of two chiefs of patrol. "We have to learn to do more with less."
Police recruiters are fanning out across the region, from rural college campuses nestled in Pennsylvania cornfields to seaside naval ports in Virginia, in addition to city schools, churches and businesses in the midst of layoffs.
But competition is intense. A strong economy and an influx of federal dollars have left cities flush with money and eager to bolster crime-fighting efforts after years of stagnation caused by budget shortfalls.
"There is a full-scale police recruiting war going on in every metropolitan area in the country," said Sheldon F. Greenberg, chairman of the Police Executive Leadership Program at the Johns Hopkins University.
Baltimore's stepped-up hiring efforts may keep up only with attrition, which claims 11 officers a month.
The department is short more than 400 officers in patrol divisions, counting vacancies and officers on suspension, desk duty and medical leave. Only 1,673 of the 2,089 funded positions in the department's front-line crime-fighting forces are filled.
Each of the nine city police districts is short of personnel. Northwestern, for example, should have nearly 200 officers available for patrol; most recent figures available show it has fewer than 150.
Commanders acknowledge that overtime is being paid to ensure adequate protection in some neighborhoods and that operations squads established to quell trouble in crime hot spots are helping with routine patrol.
Maj. John L. Bergbower, the head of the Southwestern District, said that as of March 22, he is funded for 206 officers but has 186. An additional 21 are on light duty, suspension or medical leave, giving him an actual street strength of 165. He said he expects to lose eight to 10 sergeants and lieutenants this summer because of the retirement incentive plan.
To compensate, he said, he has patched together patrol squads by curtailing administrative and investigative units. Detectives who usually investigate burglaries are driving patrol cars.
"The service that people get every day is up to par," he said.
Commanders said it is hard to plan when they don't know how many officers will retire in the coming months. But Officer Gary McLhinney, president of Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 3, said the problem was known three years ago and should have been dealt with sooner.
"We are calling it a crisis," the union head said.
McLhinney said the union proposed converting the tens of millions of dollars the department will save through the mass retirements to wages. The starting salary for city police is $27,312, putting Baltimore's new officers among the lowest-paid in the state.
Melvin Harris, the city's labor negotiator, said there might not be much money left, given the cost of putting new hires through six months of training, covering a $3 million Police Department budget deficit and continuing programs started with federal grants that run out this year.
Officers are getting a 4 percent pay increase July 1, bringing the starting salary to $28,404.
The accelerated hiring pace also has created a concern that standards could be compromised.
Three years ago, Washington, D.C., stepped up hiring and ended up with a class of young officers who provoked a number of brutality complaints and many who slipped onto the force with felony convictions.
"They tell me that standards aren't compromised, and I haven't seen evidence that they are," McLhinney said. "But when you hurry the process, you make mistakes. We aren't hiring fast-food cooks. We give people badges and guns and the authority to take a life."
Shirey said standards will not be relaxed. "I would rather run a little short than hire quick and suffer the consequences," he said. "We're getting good quality now."
The colonel said the department can boost patrols by shuffling personnel and using money saved by retirements to pay overtime.
"I feel absolutely confident that whatever hit we take," he said, "the public will not notice any lapse in service."
But top police officials are worried. Commissioner Thomas C. Frazier sent a letter last month to every officer's home pleading for help in finding recruits willing to accept "the challenge of serving as peace officers in our urban community."
The city's top officer asked his troops to "encourage those from within your family, circle of close friends and even casual acquaintances, to join our cause."
The retirement incentive plan was put into effect three years ago to encourage experienced officers to stay. It allowed them to bank their pension -- half of salary -- for three years and continue to work at full pay.
This is the first year officers can cash in and take the lump sum. As a result, the department is bracing for an exodus that could hit full-force in the summer. The recruitment office has boosted staff to seek applicants.
"We have to be innovative and creative," said Lt. Antonio Williams, who heads the department's recruitment drive, which has to follow the police commissioner's oft-stated mantra to hire "in the spirit of service, not adventure."
At first glance, it seems the department is overwhelmed with applicants. More than 700 signed up from January through mid-March. But it takes that many to find 50 qualified recruits to fill a single class at the training academy.
Police departments across Maryland and up and down the East Coast are competing for what experts say is a dwindling pool of applicants because of the lure of private companies with larger salaries and better benefits.
"If the job market remains this lucrative, recruiting for police is going to be hard," said Sgt. Vincent E. Moore, a recruiter.
The military, once a fertile recruiting ground for law enforcement, is struggling to fill its own ranks. Police hiring experts said there are fewer 18- to 25-year-olds to draw from, and President Clinton's initiative to put 100,000 new officers on the streets is giving cities money to hire.
"Departments that would not normally be competing for additional officers are now going head to head," Greenberg said.
Howard County is struggling with a shortfall after many officers left seeking higher pay and better benefits. Prince George's County, which has one of the top pay scales in the state, recently went on a nationwide recruiting drive, testing applicants on the road.
Greenberg said it is not unusual for departments to sort through hundreds of people to find a handful of qualified officers. Baltimore County has been unable to fill its last two academy classes. And other suburban agencies report difficulty in keeping up with attrition.
As a result, police agencies are raiding neighboring departments. Last year, Prince George's put recruitment fliers on the windshields of marked patrol cars in Towson and handed out literature to city officers in station-house parking lots.
Baltimore County -- which recently boosted its starting salary for officers from $26,000 to $30,000, about $2,000 more than Baltimore will pay in July -- has a lateral hiring program in place to lure experience officers.
More than 150 officers applied to the county last month. While some were from places such as Fort Wayne, Ind.; Birmingham, Ala.; the FBI; and the U.S. Secret Service, the overwhelming majority, 121, were from the city. Only a handful, however, are expected to be hired.
Baltimore police have a T-shirt with a slogan: "Real police work in the city." Their suburban counterparts countered with a saying of their own: "Yeah, but the smart ones work in the county."
The county's starting salary, among the highest in the state, and an easier and safer workload make it difficult to sell the merits of policing Baltimore, one of the deadliest cities in the nation and close to the bottom in starting pay.
"Who wants to come here when they can get all that money in Baltimore County?" said Col. Joseph Bolesta, a 33-year veteran who is retiring June 4.
"We are considered a fertile training ground for other agencies," said Bolesta, who sent recruiters several years ago to military bases in Germany. "A year on the street here is equivalent to 10 years in other departments."
Police use that to sell the city. The pay level in Baltimore County "certainly gives us more of a challenge," Williams said. "But we are are not throwing in the towel. We believe a lot of people want to work in an urban environment."
Baltimore recruiters boast of unparalleled opportunities for advancement and say that if you want to become a police officer and make a difference, the city with its crime and social ills is the only place to be.
Try that line in Lincoln, Pa., at Lincoln University.
Three Baltimore police officers drove there last month, set up a booth in Manuel Rivero Hall and tried to lure soon-to-be graduates of this university, founded in the 19th century by a church pastor who helped free a young black girl who had been abducted by slave raiders from Maryland.
Officer Alvin D. Mack placed the booth strategically in a corner to get maximum traffic, next to the Wilmington, Del., Fire Department and across from several other police departments and school systems, including Howard County.
Anjuan Collins, a 22-year-old senior from Southwest Baltimore, told Mack he wanted to teach, not police, but picked up a packet anyway.
Malcolm Wilson, a business major, did the same.
"How you doing, buddy?" Mack shouted with a broad smile and outstretched arms as if he were welcoming an old friend.
"I'm in business administration," Wilson shot back, keeping a safe distance from the table of recruiters armed with colorful brochures.
Mack was undeterred. "I graduated from Morgan State in business administration, and I became a Baltimore police officer."
"To each his own," Wilson responded. "I'm just not interested."
They had better luck with Jameel Hendricks, 21, a junior and chemistry major from Newark, N.J. He wants to be a police officer, but he hasn't decided where to apply.
Officer Rebecca Harrington gave him the standard spiel: "We're looking to fill 300 positions. We have walk-in testing to make it convenient. Ten minutes after you take the test, we can tell you whether you passed or failed. I'm sure you'll pass it."
She then went down the list of benefits -- health plan, uniforms, promotions, retirement after 20 years, 14 paid holidays, 12 vacation days from day one, paid court overtime and sick leave.
"This is an excellent package," she told him.
Hendricks took the information, but wasn't sure.
"Baltimore has a lot of issues that need to be addressed," he said. "It's like any other city. I believe in giving back to the community, to make everything worthwhile living."
Hendricks had heard pitches from other anxious agencies, such as the Pennsylvania and Delaware state police and departments in New Castle, Del., and Chesterfield County, Va., a suburb of Richmond, most of which pay more than Baltimore.
Chesterfield County with a force of 430 offers nearly the same salary as Baltimore, $28,000, but that is considered high in Virginia. "You can buy a home your first year," said Chesterfield County's Officer Dan Evers.
The department has a perk Baltimore can't offer: take-home police cars. But the sell is virtually the same.
Recruiting means dealing with some uncomfortable truths. At a job fair at the Timonium fairgrounds last month, Baltimore Officer Duane C. Murrill explained the city's low starting salary by talking about overtime and "shift differentials" for working nights.
Two hours into the eight-hour recruitment drive, 35 people had made inquiries.
Mike Salamone, a 20-year-old junior criminal justice major at Towson University, said he wanted to become a police officer: "It's just something I've always wanted to do."
Meanwhile, a man approached Officer Deneen L. Williams at the booth and said: "I hear there are a lot of police retiring."
"There are," Williams responded as she prepared another packet of information to hand out. "That's why we're recruiting. We need all the people we can get."
Pub Date: 4/09/99