Councilman: Buffalo, New York, USA police to stage "sickout"

March 3, 2007

According to one Buffalo, New York Common Council member, David Franczyk, the City of Buffalo Police force is staging a "sickout" on the weekend of St. Patricks Day and the NCAA Basketball Tournament, or somewhere around March 17, 2007.

A sickout means that officers in the entire city would all call in sick during that weekend.

Franczyk says that he received a call from at least one person that claimed he was an officer of the Buffalo police force and that he was warning Franczyk that the sickout was going to take place. The caller also claimed, according to Franczyk, that his intentions are to get "the nation's attention."

"He explained that because the wages are frozen that this would be a work action to get the attention of the Nation essentially," said Franczyk. As of the moment, Franczyk has been the only Common Council member to be informed about the sickout.

Mayor of Buffalo, Byron Brown said if this were to take place, it would be "catastrophic" for the city, but also said that he thinks the sickout "will not happen" and also added that it would be "illegal."

"How catastrophic would it be if they were to ever do that? Again, I don't believe that it would happen. Those kinds of behaviours..those kinds of actions are irresponsible and illegal. We have a Police Department that is very responsible," said Brown.

Brown also said that he believes that police officers "will do the right thing" and that they will "do their jobs, even if they are frustrated."

The name of the officer who called Franczyk is not known and it is not known if he was actually a police officer.

Wikinews attempted to contact Franczyk regarding the sickout, but he has yet to respond.