A federal court judge has urged Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott to sit down with Gov. Wes Moore to address what he calls a major block in getting more officers on city streets.

Since the 1990s, the Baltimore City Police Department has conducted firearms training for recruits at a facility near the Gunpowder Military Reservation in Baltimore County.

The facility is state-owned, and the National Guard subleases it to the Baltimore Police Department.

Baltimore Police confirmed an issue with the lease is impacting training operations.

“The scope of the problem is we can’t train on the large range, which means it requires a lot of adjustments in our scheduling,” said Commissioner Richard Worley, in a statement.

Judge James Bredar brought attention to the issue during a recent federal consent decree hearing.

Bredar pointed out that this could have the consequence of extending the class from 32 weeks to 38 weeks, which would mean paying recruits an additional six weeks and resulting in them not getting on the streets as quickly and requiring others to work more overtime.

Former BPD Deputy Commissioner Jason Johnson echoed Judge Bredar’s concerns.

“So much of BPD’s performance. Its ability to serve the community and ability to come into compliance with the consent decree hinges on its ability to increase its staffing,” said Johnson. “We’re already looking at a year-long process. Any delay in that would extend and does cause there to be continued use of overtime by officers because of the staffing problem.”

For years, the Baltimore Police Department has been operating hundreds of officers short.

According to the Department, BPD currently has 2,016 sworn officers and nearly 500 sworn vacancies. The consent decree staffing plan calls for 2,600 sworn members.

In recent hearings, Judge Bredar has commended BPD’s progress in getting more boots on the ground.

According to the Department, BPD has hired nearly double the number of recruits compared to this time last year.

The Mayor’s Office and the Governor’s Office were not immediately available for comment.

An MPIA was also submitted requesting a copy of the lease agreement.

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