For the first time since 2011, Baltimore “has a shot” to finish the year with fewer than 200 people killed, Baltimore Police Department Commissioner Richard Worley told the Police Accountability Board Monday night.

As of Monday morning, Baltimore has seen 185 homicides in 2024, compared to 243 at this time last year, according BPD data. Nonfatal shootings as of Dec. 2 are also down considerably, sitting at 392 this year compared to 590 last year.

Over the last two years, many American cities have seen significant drops in their homicide rates, but Baltimore’s is one of the most pronounced. Earlier this year, a Biden administration official called Baltimore’s reduction the “greatest success story” in the country.

Worley also spoke about some progress in staffing the department, which is currently short of its budgeted workforce by more than 500 sworn officers. Worley credited larger recruitment class sizes and Mayor Brandon Scott’s recent agreement with the Baltimore police union.

“Things are going pretty good, we just need more cops,” Worley said. “But even if we hired 500 today, they wouldn’t be on the street for nine months.”

Worley said the Police Department currently has about 1,991 sworn officers but its budgeted strength is between 2,500 and 2,600 officers.

Misconduct reviews will ‘never’ meet federal time limit, BPD says

Baltimore’s agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, forged in the aftermath of the death of Freddie Gray, requires the agency to finish internal misconduct reviews within 90 days.

But Brian Nadeau, head of the department’s Public Integrity Bureau, told the accountability board on Monday that the agency will “never” meet that goal.

“It’s going to be impossible because of the volume,” Nadeau said.

The integrity bureau has a caseload of about 1,400 this year, Nadeau said, adding that many of those are internally referred by BPD employees.

Nadeau’s answers came in response to Jesmond Riggins, a civil rights attorney who sits on the board’s administrative charging committee, which reviews misconduct cases.

Riggins recently criticized the agency’s slow-moving internal misconduct investigations, which are often delivered to the committee as they are about to expire. Riggins and other police reform advocates have pointed to the city’s lack of action to correct the delays as a reason why the charging committee should be housed in an independent office, insulated from government interest.

Riggins pressed Nadeau, asking what the department planned to do about the 90-day requirement being an impossible goal, considering that it would hold the agency back from exiting its costly federal oversight.

Nadeau said that the department is in “preliminary discussions” about changing the metric with the judge overseeing its agreement and the DOJ.

Equity and Civil Rights director out

After about eight months on the job, Caron Watkins, interim director of Baltimore’s Office of Equity and Civil Rights, which houses the accountability board, announced she is leaving her post for a new opportunity.

She said her last day will be Friday. Watkins took the job in April after former director Dana Moore was reassigned to be a senior adviser for the recovery from the Key Bridge collapse.

The board expressed gratitude for her leadership and gave her flowers after wishing her luck.

Riggins expressed concern about the high turnover in the office, saying there had been “something like 10 directors in 7 years.”

Watkins responded that she struggled with that in making her decision.

“I remain committed to the city of Baltimore,” Watkins said. “I live here. I am still here. I’m just seizing an opportunity, for me, which I don’t usually do.”