Montgomery Co. officials propose adding 7th police district to combat crime

Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich is considering adding a seventh district police station to combat the increase in crime following three recent homicides in Silver Spring, including one in a downtown parking garage.

Currently, the county has six police districts.

“[It] would I think help us spread the load better and make sure resources are deployed more evenly,” Elrich said.

County officials said a proposal for a new station would focus on downtown Silver Spring, and that a workload analysis is underway. If funding allows, a proposal could be phased for the next fiscal year.

Elrich said there are efforts to recruit more police officers as recruit classes have decreased in recent years.

“We are caught in a situation where every time we have incidents … in a particular geographic area, those resources are coming from other geographic areas,” he said.

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