Bullets, Budget Holes, and Baffling Boasts – Welcome to Zeke’s Baltimore

By /
Listen to this article now
POWERED BY DIGITAL PIZZA AUDIO
00:00 04:13
Reading Time: 3 minutes
A Marvel Comic Book-style cartoon depicts a chaotic Baltimore street scene at night. City Council President Zeke Cohen, in a suit, stands at a podium labeled "City Council," speaking into a microphone with a concerned expression. In the background, police officers stand near parked cars, and tall buildings loom under a dark sky with streetlights casting an eerie glow. A second panel shows Cohen in a suit with a red tie, gesturing confidently while speaking, with a speech bubble saying, "Go the police! Course police only pull rodeo garnacribe reeds against the NFL to change. We are gone forever to change the great battle!"

In a city where walking to your car after dark might involve dodging a stray bullet or two and where residents pray their vehicle is still where they parked it—Baltimore’s leadership wants you to know their real concern is… police overtime.

Yes, you read that right.

At Tuesday night’s FY2026 budget hearing, City Council President Zeke Cohen took a break from budgeting fantasy camp to declare, “This is a department that is… just winning when it comes to the crime fight.”1

Winning? Sir, what sport are we watching here—because it sure doesn’t feel like we’re winning on the streets. For context, the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) is requesting a $614 million budget for fiscal year 2026—a 3.5% increase over last year.2 That might sound steep, until you consider that the city currently has hundreds of police vacancies3 and overtime is the only thing keeping some semblance of law and order from collapsing entirely.

But for Zeke, the main issue isn’t the violent carjackings, open-air drug markets, or kids getting caught in gang crossfire. It’s “unfettered overtime.” He’s concerned about cops being paid too much to do the jobs no one else is around to do.

“We can’t be passing budgets and then enabling unfettered overtime if the dollars aren’t right,” Cohen said, adding, “we should be honest about it on the front end.”4

Honesty? Let’s try that.

Let’s be honest that Baltimore, despite what one month of slightly improved homicide stats says, is still gripped by a crisis of public safety and public confidence. Five homicides in April may be the lowest monthly total since the 1970s5, but that’s a bit like bragging you only flooded the basement this week instead of the entire first floor. Crime may be “down” on paper, but the lived experience for most city residents is that the danger hasn’t moved—it’s just been redistricted.

Let’s also be honest that the BPD’s overtime issue isn’t some wild spending spree—it’s a symptom of a chronic staffing shortage. If you can’t recruit and retain officers—and spoiler alert: Baltimore can’t—you’re going to rely on the few still standing to work long hours to cover basic services. That’s not mismanagement; it’s triage.

Zeke Cohen, who swept into City Hall waving banners of “transparency and efficiency,” seems more interested in balancing spreadsheets than restoring public trust. This isn’t some government procurement snafu over who ordered too many printer cartridges. This is about the people of Baltimore being able to walk outside without fear that their evening ends in an ambulance ride—or worse.

Yes, we need budget oversight. But that can’t come at the cost of safety. The city needs more officers, better-trained officers, and incentives to keep them here. Not lectures from politicians who don’t live within earshot of the nightly gunfire.

Council President Cohen would do well to remember: you can’t crime-stat your way to safety. You can’t spin your way out of accountability. And you sure can’t expect people to feel “safe” just because April was slightly less bloody than March.

Baltimore deserves better than finger-pointing at the only department actually trying to hold the line.

Aaron Ackerman is a columnist and reporter for Direct Line News. He is currently writing a book titled “Broken Windows, Broken Trust: Life Between City Hall and the Crime Tape.” Contact him at Aaron.Ackerman@mcgopclub.com

Endnotes:

  1. Baltimore City Council Budget Hearing, June 3, 2025. Statement by Council President Zeke Cohen. ↩
  2. “Baltimore Police Department Budget Proposal FY2026,” Baltimore City Finance Department, May 2025. ↩
  3. “Baltimore Police Staffing Report,” Office of the Inspector General, March 2025. Report confirmed over 400 vacancies across BPD ranks. ↩
  4. Zeke Cohen, FY26 Budget Hearing remarks, recorded by Baltimore Council public session, June 3, 2025. ↩
  5. Baltimore Police Department Homicide Report, April 2025. City reported 5 homicides—the lowest April total since modern records began in the 1970s. ↩

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

Aaron Ackerman is a columnist and reporter for Direct Line News and a Sophomore at Georgetown University
Contact him at Aaron.Ackerman@mcgopclub.com

About The Author

Aaron Ackerman

See author's posts

Scroll to Top