Prince George’s County police are warning residents that a staffing shortage is impacting patrol coverage in the Beltsville and Laurel areas.

During a June 29 community meeting in Beltsville, representatives from the county’s District 6 Police Department told residents that staffing resources along the Route 1 and Maryland Route 198 corridor were stretched thin.

“We are in a staffing crisis with Prince George’s County,” Sgt. Kenneth Hibbert said. “You’re not going to get that 24-hour officer just sitting in your community due to us being short-staffed.”

District 6 patrols West Laurel, South Laurel, Beltsville, Calverton and Greenbelt. It does not include the City of Laurel, which is served by the Laurel Police Department. 

Cpl. Michael Fraser told residents that District 6 has about five to six officers working at any given time during a shift. Calls for service, such as domestic violence incidents, require two officers, leaving fewer officers available for patrol.

“A domestic requires two police officers. A burglary requires two officers. A traffic stop requires two officers. There are very few one-person calls,” he said. “So a lot of times when people may say, ‘Well, we’re not getting the kind of police service that we need,’ you know why? We don’t have enough police officers.”

County police have been grappling with staffing shortages for years. The department has acknowledged the issue in recent budget documents, including its fiscal year 2027 budget, which identifies workforce staffing and a retirement wave as among its most significant operational challenges.

The fiscal year 2027 budget authorizes 1,068 sworn patrol positions as part of 1,728 authorized sworn positions departmentwide, unchanged from fiscal year 2026. The budget also shows 346 sworn officer vacancies, representing a vacancy rate of about 20%, up from roughly 14% in fiscal year 2020.

By comparison, the Montgomery County Police Department has 1,277 sworn officer positions in its proposed fiscal year 2027 budget.

The Prince George’s County Police Department is actively recruiting officers to address its staffing shortage. The fiscal year 2027 budget includes $453.5 million in General Fund spending, a 7.6% increase over the fiscal year 2026 General Fund budget. The increased funding supports salary adjustments, overtime, equipment and technology while also funding three recruit classes of at least 50 officers each, for a total of 150 new recruits, and one class of five experienced officers.

Police staffing shortages have affected departments across the Washington region in recent years, with jurisdictions competing to recruit new officers through signing bonuses and competitive salaries. Prince George’s County’s starting salary is just over $70,000, slightly higher than the starting salaries in Montgomery County ($70,056) and Howard County ($69,534).

Despite the staffing shortage, countywide response times have been mixed. According to budget documents, the average response time for priority calls increased slightly from 10 minutes, 56 seconds in 2024 to 11 minutes, 10 seconds in 2025. During the same period, the average response time for all calls improved from 13 minutes, 46 seconds to 11 minutes, while non-priority calls remained essentially unchanged at about 14 minutes. Response time is measured from dispatch until an officer arrives on scene.

Back in District 6, Fraser said the demand for police officers will only increase as more housing developments bring more residents to the area and encouraged residents to advocate for additional resources at the county level.

“More houses mean more people,” Fraser said. “More people means we need more police, so you’ve got to advocate for yourself at every meeting and say, ‘Hey, this is what we need.'”