By WMAL.com
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced on Monday that her office was creating plans to hire 350 law enforcement officers to replace the officers that left the force over the mandated COVID-19 vaccine.
- D.C. budget: the police recruitment plan is included in Bowser’s 2023 budget proposal. Her plan allocated $30 million for “hiring, recruiting and retraining” the Metropolitan Police Department. The goal of her plan is to return the department to its full operating capacity of 4,000 law enforcement officials. The department currently employees 3,500 officers.
- What Bowser said: “That means hiring almost 350 officers this year and making sure we’re doing everything possible to keep the officers we have,” said Bowser at a new conference on Monday.
- What Police Chief Contee said: “If you are refusing to be vaccinated, you can be the best candidate in the world, but to join the ranks of the Metropolitan Police Department, we have to say no.” Contee said in an interview with Channel 4 last year his department was at its “lowest level that we’ve had in over 20 years”.
- The backdrop: Bowsers call to fill the hole left by officers who left the force over her COVID-19 vaccine policies follows a drastic rise in crime rates across the city. The number of homicides and car jackings has risen drastically over the past year. 227 homicide cases were reported in 2021, up from 198 in 2020.
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