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As Milwaukee city leaders put the finishing touches on the roughly $2 billion budget for 2025, the police department is at top of mind.On Thursday, the Common Council Public Safety & Health Committee heard from the Director of the Fire & Police Commission about efforts to boost numbers.”I think, as everybody knows, it is a difficult, challenging environment nationwide to recruit police officers,” FPC Director Leon Todd said.Common Council recently approved its 2025 budget, which includes more than $314 million for the Milwaukee Police Department.This allows for three police academy classes with 65 recruits each. Unfortunately, with the same goals this year, recruiting fell short.”The class that started in March started with 46 recruits, graduated 37. The class that started in August started with 33, down to 30 now. The December class will be between 26-28,” Todd said.This means MPD will likely only graduate 95 officers out of the 195 goal for 2024.Mayor Cavalier Johnson said it must improve for 2025.”The desire of people in Milwaukee is to work to make sure we have a fully staffed police department,” he said.He believes challenges in recruitment stem partly from the summer of 2020.”The unfortunate incident where a law enforcement officer killed George Floyd in Minneapolis, and there have been ripple effects from that,” he said.The starting salary for a Milwaukee police officer is $47,673.69, then increases to $63,564.75 after graduation from the academy.If MPD doesn’t hire more officers, the city could lose tens of millions of dollars, thanks to a 2023 state law.Alderwoman Milele Coggs sounded the alarm.”Whatever HR professional that maybe has done this somewhere else in this country, or that specifies in police recruitment, or that can help us not lose $37 million, that’s who we need to hire, like yesterday,” she said.The stakes could not be higher, with public safety and state funding on the line.Two aldermen proposed amendments to the budget, including $70,000 for a social media recruitment consultant and $15,000 for employee referral bonuses.In a statement to WISN 12, MPD said:”The Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) appreciates the efforts of all our elected officials that worked on the 2025 Budget. MPD is committed to providing the best services with the resources we are afforded. MPD continues to work with our community to build sustainable healthy neighborhoods, free of crime and maintained by positive relationships.”