As the number of shootings and homicides has surged in Baltimore, some police officers say they feel hesitant on the job under intense public scrutiny and in the wake of criminal charges against six officers in the Freddie Gray case.

State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby's decision last week to charge the officers has stoked strong opinions across the country — including praise from those who want accountability and derision from some legal experts.

But perhaps the most jarring effect has been on the Baltimore Police Department.

"In 29 years, I've gone through some bad times, but I've never seen it this bad," said Lt. Kenneth Butler, president of the Vanguard Justice Society, a group for black Baltimore police officers. Officers "feel as though the state's attorney will hang them out to dry."

Several officers said in interviews they are concerned crime could spike as officers are hesitant to do their jobs, and criminals sense opportunity. Butler, a shift commander in the Southern District, said his officers are expressing reluctance to go after crime.

"I'm hearing it from guys who were go-getters, who would go out here and get the guns and the bad guys and drugs. They're hands-off now," Butler said. "I've never seen so many dejected faces.

"Policing, as we once knew it, has changed."

Lt. Victor Gearhart, a 33-year veteran who works in the Southern District, said residents with complaints about police "are going to get the police force they want, and God help them."

Edward C. Jackson, a retired Baltimore police colonel who teaches at Baltimore City Community College, said he is worried about crime spiking if officers go into a "work slowdown" to avoid proactive police work.

"Baltimore can ill afford having cops do the bare minimum," he said. "The bad guys are going to take advantage of a slowdown. It's a terrible situation for the city to be in."

The city has seen 40 shootings since April 28, the day after the city's most intense day of rioting, including 10 on Thursday alone. There also have been 15 homicides in that span, bringing the year's total to 82 — 20 more than at the same time last year.

One city leader said he doesn't believe officers are treading too cautiously on the job, but he acknowledged that the stress from protests, rioting and federal investigations is wearing on police, as is fatigue for officers who worked 14- and 15-hour days several days in a row during the unrest.

"You have a perfect storm," City Councilman Brandon M. Scott said. "First of all, I think everyone is tired. But you also have to realize for everything that's going on in the city last week, we still have a violence problem in the city, and it's just being exacerbated by the light being shined on Baltimore."

Scott said he doesn't believe officers are being "purposefully hesitant."

"They have a pride in their job," Scott said. "They would not do that to prove a point."

He urged officers to focus on their individual jobs and not the daily developments that grow out of the Gray case. Scott said he is asking for an immediate accounting of the well-being, staffing and deployment of officers as well as patrol strategies to ensure police haven't been spread too thin or deployed in the wrong places.

Scott said he does not believe the violence is spiraling out of control.

"I am concerned, and I don't think it is, but I want to make sure we're going to right the ship and put people where they need to be," Scott said.

Baltimore police said Friday that they're assessing their patrol plans to make sure the city is covered adequately.

"Every loss of life is tragic, and we have an obligation as a department to provide safe communities for our citizens," Baltimore police spokesman Sgt. Jarron Jackson said. "We're evaluating our deployment strategies to ensure that we're doing that."

It remains to be seen how the tensions will affect relations between police and prosecutors, who must work together to build cases.

Mosby often notes that she comes from a family with five generations of police officers, and during the announcement of the charges last week stressed they were not "an indictment of the entire force."

Gray, 25, died a week after sustaining a severed spine and other injuries while in police custody.

Mosby charged the driver of the police van that transported Gray with second-degree murder and the other officers with offenses that included involuntary manslaughter, false imprisonment and misconduct in office.

On Friday, the attorneys for the six officers charged in Gray's death filed a motion to dismiss the case and asked for the recusal of Mosby, claiming "overzealous prosecution" and an array of conflicts of interest.

Mosby said in a statement this week that she would not discuss the pending case, but cautioned that prosecutors have information that supports the charges that has not been made public. Mosby declined to comment Friday.