Every cop City Desk called seemed to have heard the whisperings. At the Metropolitan Police Department, rumors about budget cuts are flying. Several police sources say they’ve been told by fellow officers that the department needs to cut 40 million dollars from its budget due to city belt tightening, and that the cuts will either amount to the loss of 300-400 police jobs, or 30 days of “furlough” (unpaid time off) for a large swath or all of the department.

MPD has not responded to an inquiry about the gossip. Doxie McCoy of the mayor’s office says there have been no final decisions made about MPD’s budget at this point. “We haven’t put out any numbers, we’re still having budget review meetings,” she says.  She says Mayor Vincent Gray will put out firm budget numbers on April 1. But Mccoy also says that in discussions with various department heads about the city’s financial future “numbers may have come up.”  But she says those numbers wouldn’t be “definitive.”

Photo by Darrow Montgomery