CHEVERLY, Md. (DC News Now) — The Mayor of Cheverly, Kayce Munyeneh, in Prince George’s County, wants to hire more police officers.
Munyeneh said adding more boots on the ground will help her community and keep residents safer.
“It is kind of unheard of because people are leaving the field of policing and every police agency around the country is struggling to hire and are losing officers,” Munyeneh said. “Getting folks who want to come here is important and we are trying to add new officers, and we want to expand the town but most importantly we want to keep our residents safe.”
There are 19 officers on duty but the Mayor said the plan is to add 6 new officers to increase the number to 25. That sounds like good news to Cheverly resident Monique Catlett.
“It will probably allow them to better saturate our area than only doing it when things happen so I think it will be a huge benefit.” Catlett said.
Cheverly Police Department’s Police Chief David Morris said it would cost upwards of one million dollars to add the new officers. The funds would cover salaries, benefits and equipment like firearms, body cameras, vests and police cruisers.
“We have to be better at what we do and keep our focus on community policing recognizing the first word in community policing is community,” Morris said.
The mayor is hoping to hire the new officers in the next two years.
