Police department running low on pants

Baltimore police are looking for a few good pairs of pants. The police department has run out of two popular sizes of the custom-made navy blue uniform pants it provides to every officer, a department spokesman said Wednesday. Officers who wear size 36 or 38 will have to wait for new pants until a special order comes through. "We are officially out," said Officer Troy Harris, a police spokesman. "We're putting in an emergency order for those two sizes." The department attributed the shortage to the recent hiring of 240 new officers. But police union president Paul Blair blamed a new initiative that requires detectives to walk periodic foot patrols in uniform. Cadets receive four pairs of pants when they leave the police academy. When officers need a new pair, they get them free but are required to turn in their old ones. "If [the pants] can be saved, they'll be cleaned and put back into rotation," Harris said.