YORK, Pa. — One hundred police officers.
That's the maximum number of officers the York City Police Department can have, according to Article 145 of the city’s codified ordinances. The language written in 1978 remains today as gun violence surges nationwide.
A 2020 York College study on gun violence in the city compared York to 19 other similar sized cities, including Harrisburg, Lancaster, and Reading.
"The raw numbers aren't extremely high," York College Professor Vinny Cannizzaro said. "But when we're looking at them in a manner where we can compare against other municipalities, we have a relatively high number."
When compared to similar sized cities in our area, York had the most gun violence incidents and deaths per 100,000 residents.
Cannizzaro told FOX43 changing the city ordinance is not as simple as changing the number.
"It's more of a question of ‘Are we hitting our benchmarks?’ And if not, ‘How can we readjust our policies to fix and to hit those benchmarks?’" Cannizzaro said. "We should be using good data, we should be using new evidence and good evidence to make those decisions."
While seeking community input back in August, York City Police presented data which included a comparison of the four PA cities referenced in the study.
"York City is literally the low with respect to officers throughout Pennsylvania and in the cities," York City Police Commissioner Michael Muldrow said in and August 1 interview.
As a result, Department officials claim they are fielding nearly 500 calls per officer annually.
Captain Daniel Lentz said that budget is one issue, though the mayor’s office has already backed the department with external funds.
"There's some external funding through like ARPA that the mayor is allowing us to increase our workforce," Lentz said.
Still, according to the proposed 2023 budget for all four cities, York would have the highest proposed police budget per capita, or based on population.
Muldrow also told FOX43 in August that city leadership needs to move to make change, since city council has the authority to amend the ordinance.
"We have to then get them to go back and repeal and change the laws to make it a possibility," Muldrow said.
Lentz says the department has made efforts to amend article 145.
"We've presented a resolution to council to change some of those things," Lentz said. "The mayor has, has agreed to, you know, increase our police force. However, we do still want to remove that restriction or at least increase the cap of officers."
The York City Police Department officials say they want to add roughly 22 more officers, though that can’t be done without change.