Detroit Police Officer Suspended

Officer Tests Positive For Alcohol, Controlled Substance, Department Says

DETROIT – A Detroit police officer was suspended Saturday after testing positive for alcohol and a controlled substance following a freeway crash, the department said.

The accident happened Thursday on eastbound Interstate 96 near Martin Luther King Boulevard in Detroit. The officer was pulled from his burning vehicle by a Good Samaritan after crashing into a freeway wall.

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Further investigation revealed that at the time of the accident, the officer was under the influence of alcohol and tested positive for a controlled substance, police said.

"I am disheartened that a member of the Detroit Police Department holding a supervisory rank, who has been sworn to protect and serve; and to display the highest level of professionalism, would endanger the lives of others as well as his own," Police Chief Ralph Godbee said in a statement Saturday.

Godbee has ordered the officer to be immediately suspended, and with the concurrence of the Board of Police Commissioners, will seek his suspension without pay.