Burlington city councilors on Monday will discuss a report that recommends a police force of 105 officers — the maximum allowed before the now-infamous vote in 2020 to shrink the department’s size through attrition. The report from outgoing Police Chief Jon Murad says officers are overburdened and that a smaller police presence has contributed to higher crime rates. Raising the cap would allow for regular patrols in neighborhoods and on the Church Street Marketplace, where theft and open-air drug use have caused widespread concern. "I truly believe that there is a path by which the agency can return fully to what it was," Murad wrote. With community support, he said, "we can rebuild." Murad’s report was in response to a September city council resolution that tasked him with recommending a new cap and analyzing recruitment trends. Introduced by council Democrats, the measure originally sought to remove the current 87-officer cap altogether, but they agreed to amend it after negotiating with Progressives, including Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak. [content-1] The question of police staffing has been highly politicized since the June 2020 vote to limit the number of officers to 74. About 16 months later, the council raised the cap to 87 officers. Since the original vote, 58 officers have left, the report says, and while the department has hired 30 officers, not all have stayed. There are now fewer than 70 officers on patrol. Murad has said he plans to leave the department no later than early April, and he anticipates nearly two dozen more departures or retirements before June 2028. Raising the headcount would revive “community policing,” where cops on a beat could forge relationships with neighbors, Murad writes. As many as six officers could be assigned to the Marketplace, and the Street Crime Unit could be reactivated. Department social workers would be able to deploy with armed officers, the report says. Murad suggests that the 2020 vote and subsequent debates over police staffing are largely to blame for the department’s hiring woes. He says the city should formally apologize for the vote. Doing so would be "one of the most important retention tools,” Murad wrote, and wouldn’t cost anything. [content-4] The report recommends maintaining hiring bonuses, investing in officer training opportunities and increasing the pay scale for supervisors. It urges the city to address the aging police station at 1 North Avenue, which Murad said is “past time for an…