Budget trouble forces D.C. police hiring freeze
By: Scott McCabe
Examiner Staff Writer
July 23, 2009
The Fenty administration, facing a budget shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars, has ordered a hiring freeze for the D.C. police department, according to memos obtained by The Examiner.
A citywide hiring freeze was ordered last month, but there were questions whether public safety jobs would be affected. The Metropolitan Police Department was informed last week that all promotions and backfills have been placed on hold until further notice.
"This is a result of the District facing significant spending pressures in Fiscal Year 2009, and the anticipation of further decline in projected revenues for the remainder of the Fiscal Year 2009 and 2010," according to a July 13 memorandum from D.C. Director of Human Resources Diana Haines.
The District and D.C. police are trying to determine the effect of the agency's ability to no longer hire and promote.
D.C. police spokeswoman Traci Hughes said the department has a little more than 4,000 officers on the force. That's well short of the 4,200 sworn officers the department was supposed to have on the force by Sept. 30.
The District plans to apply for the U.S. Department of Justice COPS grant to hire 150 officers for fiscal 2010. The money would help the District save $6 million in D.C. taxpayer dollars, according the D.C. police budget.
The number of officers dipped late last year -- from 4,051 on Oct. 1 to 4,022 on Dec. 31 -- and attrition rates appear to be on the rise after a multiyear decline, Chief Cathy Lanier said earlier this year. The department hired hundreds of officers in 2008, Lanier said, but it also lost 152 through terminations, disability retirements, death, optional retirements and resignations.
The freeze comes after Mayor Adrian Fenty directed 40 D.C. agencies, including the police, to chop more than $35 million from their budgets in the face of a growing 2009 deficit. Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi has slashed city revenue projections.
-- Bill Myers contributed to this report.
