Baltimore City police officers block off the scene of a shooting in Baltimore on Sept. 23. The shootout between a man in a violence-prone Baltimore district and a police officer taking part in a crime suppression initiative left the officer wounded and the suspect dead.
Police desk jobs are temporarily becoming a thing of the past in Baltimore as the embattled city gears up for an “all hands on deck” fight to combat a recent surge in homicides.
The Baltimore Police Department announced Wednesday that 230 officers assigned to administrative duties will instead be required to patrol the streets.
“We’ve gotten to a point where we’ve become desensitized to levels of violence in this city that are just totally, totally unacceptable,” interim police commissioner Gary Tuggle told the media. “There are gonna be a number of things that don’t get done, but right now, patrol is the priority."
The Baltimore Sun reported 44 killings in Baltimore in the past month, and statistics from the Sun showed 99 shootings during the past three months -- including a staggering 11 shootings just on Oct. 16.
The city recorded 342 homicides last year and has had 250 so far this year already, data shows.
“It’s all hands on deck,” Mayor Catherine Pugh said Wednesday.
The police department has around 500 officer vacancies and Tuggle says current officers will remain on patrol “until we can no longer sustain not having those administrative functions done.”
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