Prince George's County Struggles to Fill Police Slots

UPPER MARLBORO, Md. - Homicides, violent sex crimes and carjackings are on the rise in Prince George's County, and now leaders say the county is 60 officers short of full staff.

The Washington Post reports the county has a budget of more than 1,400 officers but currently has 1,356 sworn officers. It's been a problem for a decade, during which the county's population has grown by more than 100,000.

Why the shortage? County officials say they're struggling with a limited pool of qualified applicants and competition from federal law enforcement agencies.

Experts say that even if the police force was fully staffed, they would still have only about 1.6 officers per 1,000 residents. That's below the national average of 2.6 officers per 1,000 residents in metropolitan counties.

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)