The Baltimore Police Department had its first quarterly consent decree hearing of 2023.
The federal consent decree is a court order that requires changes to the Department after an investigation by the Department of Justice found that BPD engaged in a pattern and practice of unconstitutional policing.
Progress and compliance are monitored by the federal court.
During Thursday's hearing, Judge Bredar identified the Baltimore Police Department's staffing crisis as the largest barrier when it comes to achieving compliance and will likely be why BPD fails to reach it this year or even next year.
"Staffing is your most daunting challenge and most serious problem," said the Judge.
BPD lost substantial ground within the last year with 8% of its force leaving the Department for various reasons.
According to BPD, there are currently 2, 150 sworn officers that make up the Baltimore Police Department, with approximately 455 vacancies.
In 2022, according to the Department BPD hired more than 100 officers, but lost another 277 officers.
Judge Bredar was quick to identify this as a nationwide issue but still stressed BPD, as well as the Mayor, must do better.
"What I think the Judge was saying is it will take city, state, and federal government to make contributions so we can fundamentally do something different beyond what BPD is doing through its recruiting campaign and the pay incentives we can afford to give," said the Commissioner.
One of the incentives includes offering the highest paid starting salary in the state, which was announced last year.