Montgomery County Police outline FY26 priorities: Progress Place security, RMS replacement, drones, digital forensics and training partnerships

Montgomery County Police Chief Mark Yamada and senior staff briefed the Public Safety Committee on April 23 on the police department’s FY26 recommended budget and several programmatic priorities that county staff and the department identified as central to public safety operations.

Why it matters: The county executive recommended a roughly $353 million budget for MCPD for FY26 – an increase of about $23 million (6.8%) over FY25 – driven largely by compensation, overtime and continuing service levels. The department described several enhancements intended to reduce calls for service, speed investigations and strengthen training and wellness support.

Key department priorities and requests:

• Progress Place security officers (15 FTEs, ~$1.0 million): The department asked for 15 full‑time security officers to provide continuous coverage at Progress Place in Silver Spring, a facility that co‑locates Shepherd’s Table, Interfaith Works and MobileMed and has high calls for service. Officials said 22 of 37 county security officers already have Crisis Intervention Training (CIT); the department plans to expand CIT for staff assigned to Progress Place.

• Records management system (RMS) replacement and procurement: The department said its current RMS (eJustice) is legacy…