May 3, 2023

This morning, members of the Baltimore Police Department, assigned to the Southern District Uniformed Patrol, responded to a distressed woman in the water at 3100 Waterview Avenue, near Harbor Hospital. The woman went under the water and out of sight of the officers. The nearby officers took off their gear and dove into the unpredictable waters of that area in an attempt to locate the woman. The officers were able to rescue this woman and return her to land where she was treated by Baltimore City Fire Department personnel and then transported to the hospital.

The officers in this incident are heroes! They made the decision to put their own lives at risk, in a situation that is not one that they typically encounter, for the welfare of another human being. They did this knowing that there was no longer a BPD Marine Unit as it was eliminated in the first round of defunding, and the Fire Department boat was unavailable. These Patrol officers risk their lives every day for the good citizens of Baltimore knowing that backup support is limited due to the dangerously low number of uniformed Patrol officers now totaling 592 officers (the lowest # in modern-day BPD history). A couple of years ago, the BPD agreed with FOP3 that the appropriate number of uniformed officers in Patrol should never go below 980. So those officers who responded to this morning’s water rescue knew they were in substantial jeopardy as they had neither the support of a Marine Unit nor a properly staffed Patrol Division. However, they are not the only ones in jeopardy. The residents of Baltimore, as well as those who visit, are being victimized daily by a criminal element that is reaping the benefit of a severely understaffed police department and a city administration that is seemingly uninterested in retaining the limited number of officers that they have left (700 total officers short).

FOP3 is proud of the officers who acted today to save the drowning woman and equally proud of all the others who have shown their dedication by remaining in the BPD in such trying times.

Mike Mancuso

President