WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — Tuesday, members of the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee met to mark up its portion of the 2024 budget.

“Public safety is the number one issue on District residents’ minds. And this is a tighter budget year than we’ve had in the last several years,” said Councilmember Brooke Pinto, who chairs the committee.

Pinto said the public safety budget focuses on three initiatives including a pilot program for public safety grants in commercial corridors, additional funding of $4 million for access to justice initiatives and funding for recruiting and retaining members of various public safety agencies.

“We have a hiring crisis nationwide, there are pipeline challenges that our police force is having getting back up to a force size we know we need. So we’ve used this budget to try and be creative,” said Pinto.

According to the committee’s budget report, several DC public safety agencies are dealing with staffing shortages.

The Office of Unified Communications, which handles the District’s 911 calls, currently has a 20% vacancy rate. DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services are struggling to hire new paramedics. And the Metropolitan Police Department has lost 450 sworn officers since the end of fiscal year 2020.

“We haven’t been this low as an agency since the 1960s. And now, you know, hey, look, those responsibilities for the police department have not changed,” said Police Chief Robert Contee, during an interview with DC News Now’s Leonard M. Fleming. “People ask, ‘we want to see officers in our community.’ ‘We still want a reasonable response time.’”

Pinto said the budget is working to address these staffing issues.

“This budget is getting us more of these important positions and thinking creatively about building up the pipeline for the positions,” she said.

Under the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee’s marked up budget, DC will invest $1.2 million to create a D.C. Paramedic School, which will train and retain paramedics in the District.

$360,000 will be invested in advertising and marketing for MPD. Plus, the budget includes $5,370,000 for hiring bonuses for new recruits and conversion bonuses for MPD cadets. There is also funding allocated for housing assistance.

Pinto said funding will be invested as a hiring incentive for 911 call takers, which Mayor Bowser originally cut from the budget.

“Part of the strategy here is making sure we’re speaking to district high school students so they know all the different paths they have that you can go into public safety,” said Pinto, speaking on recruitment for the OUC.

Full approval of the budget still requires several votes through the council.