Detroit Mayor Dave Bing is lamenting cutting police officers' pay by 10 percent to help shore up the city's finances.
The Detroit Free Press reported on his remarks today, a day after a judge ruled the city could make the cuts and implement 12-hour work shifts:
“This 10% cut that’s been imposed … does not make me feel good at all,” Bing said. “I know the negative impact that it has on individuals and their families, and I wish that we at a better situation where I didn’t have to do it. But in order to bring our city back to financial stability, there’s pain that’s going around for all of us.”
Bing said he hopes the pay cuts and longer shifts are only temporary while the city works to get out from under a mountain of debt.
City leaders slashed $75 million from the police department’s 2012-13 budget.
The cuts were challenged by the Detroit Police Officers Association
But yesterday, Wayne County Circuit Judge Kathleen MacDonald lifted an injunction allowing the cuts to go forward.
Detroit's Police Chief praised officers for staying on despite the cuts, but Michigan Radio's Sarah Cwiek reports that "one detective-sergeant says figuring a way out of the department is a daily topic of conversation among officers."
