Prince George’s Police

The Council had its second and final work session on budget recently and made a few changes to the proposed FY 2012 draft budget.

The most significant of largest of which was a substantial increase for additional City contract police, which we are using the speed camera revenue to pay for.

Most of these items will come from revenue the City  was able to reallocate due to the additional public safety funding from the speed cameras.

Funds that the City would have otherwise spend on contract police this year will go into undesignated reserves, and then be available to spend next year.

The changes fall within the guidelines laid out in the FY2012 draft budget:

An increase of 0.72 FTE in Contract Police Officers (in Public Services, Speed Enforcement, program 2025) to certify speed enforcement camera citations

The  changes related to the public safety program in the FY2012 draft budget includes:

  • An additional $150,000 for part-time contract police coverage.
  • About $35,000 for the hiring of a part-time public safety coordinator, to assist the Neighborhood Watch coordinators and act as a liaison with the police.

The City of College Park does not have a police service. The city residents pay nearly $1 million to hire 6 contract police officers (3 pat time and 3 full time) from the county and the best way to find these recruits is through a staffing agency that can find lots of candidates. They are doing this because the police service from the county’s regular police PGPD is not enough.