The Prince George’s County Police presented its fiscal year 2026 budget proposal and discussed recruitment and retention during a Prince George’s County Council committee meeting Tuesday.
The proposed $439.7 million budget increases funding for the department by 7.3 percent from the fiscal year 2025 budget, county budget and policy analyst David Williams told the health, human services and public safety committee.
The increases in the budget are due to higher costs for operating expenses, compensation and fringe benefits, which are non-wage benefits such as retirement plans and health insurance.
Operating expenses are $47.8 million of the proposed budget. This 3.2 percent increase from the 2025 budget is due to an increase in countywide costs for technology and vehicle repair and maintenance, according to budget documents.
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The budget proposal includes $232 million for compensation — an 8.4 percent increase from last year’s budget. Salary adjustments and funding for classes for new recruits and experienced officers are the reasons behind this adjustment, according to the budget.
The department has struggled to fill vacant positions in recent years, according to county budget documents. The county has 331 empty police officer positions and a sworn vacancy rate of 19 percent, the documents said.
Police chief Malik Aziz told the committee Tuesday that the department has continuously focused on recruiting more officers to work in the county.
Many jurisdictions in neighboring states and counties offer higher bonuses to police officers, Aziz explained.
“It’s a very competitive market,” he said.
The department offers a one-time bonus of $10,000 for new hires and a $15,000 bonus for experienced police officers to bring them from other agencies, deputy police chief Curtis Lightner said.
District 3 council member Eric Olson told the committee the department may need to consider other ways to fund the police department and recruit more officers.
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“We do need to think about how we retain people, how we attract people,” Olson said.
The 2026 proposed budget allocates $28 million for overtime compensation. This would mark a $1.5 million increase from the amount approved last year, according to budget documents. The department expects to spend $29.3 million in overtime by the end of the fiscal year 2025, which is 9 percent more than the level approved in last year’s budget.
Giving out more signing bonuses and hiring more police officers may save money because it avoids having to pay overtime, Olson explained.
Aziz acknowledged to the committee that it is difficult to address crime in a high population county with a lower number of police officers without using the majority of overtime funds.
According to budget documents, retirements are impacting the department’s ability to retain experienced officers.
About 25 percent of the department’s police force will be eligible for retirement by the end of fiscal year 2026, Olson said.
Olson called the retirement numbers “scary.”
“We have a lot of work ahead of us,” Olson said. “There’s a lot of challenges, a lot of things we need to do to try to make sure that we have the most robust police force that we can have.”
