DETROIT – More than one dozen Detroit police officers in the city's northeast district staged a sickout Friday night and were off the job.
The officers were protesting Mayor Dave Bing's proposition to cut police and fire wages.
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Sixteen police officers called in sick Friday in what is known as a sickout or "blue flu," which is a form of work strike.
There are normally as many as 25 police officers working in the northeast district, which means more than half of the officers were not on patrol due to the sickout.
Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee said the department was investigating the incident.
"The Northeastern District has had approximately 16 officers that did not complete their respective tour of duty for the 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. shift," Godbee said in a statement released Friday night. "The timing of such has caused the issue to be investigated by Detroit Police Internal Affairs. Preliminary information leads me to believe this is a concerted effort isolated to one shift at one District. Resources have been redeployed to plug the gap left in this shift and all operations are normal. I will provide a more detailed media briefing relative to Internal Affairs preliminary findings on Monday."