Prince George’s County Council members are preparing to tweak a law passed last summer that has since halted residential development in the county.
The council authorized legislation in July that tied approval of residential development to adequate police and fire department staffing and emergency response times. Neither department has fully met the council’s staffing requirements.
The drafter of the unprecedented legislation, Council Member Douglas Peters, D-Bowie, said the council pledged to revisit the bill after a year to determine if any changes were needed. A modification the council is considering could boost the police department’s staffing numbers, Peters said.
“The issue of municipal police departments was discussed initially with the bill and some of us want to revisit that,” Peters said Tuesday after a meeting of the council’s public safety committee, of which he is chairman.
Currently, municipalities in the county employ about 260 police officers, the county’s Office of Audits and Investigations estimated. Adding municipal police to the equation would boost the police numbers to more than 1,600 officers. The law requires 1,470 officers in order for development to gain approval this year.
Laurel Police Chief Dave Crawford said his officers work in partnership with county police, and he thought including municipal police in the numbers made sense.
“We find that we get to crime scenes before Howard County, Anne Arundel County and, in particular, Prince George’s County,” Crawford said. Laurel is bordered by all three counties.
In addition, the council plans to review how it can ease the restrictions when a residential developer has plans for a site that is currently considered blighted.
“That’s just as much an anti-crime tool,” said Council Member David Harrington, D-Cheverly, who is championing the change.
The council will make one change that will tighten the law. Peters is drafting a bill that clarifies that departments cannot count recruits in their staffing numbers, as they had previously done.
