Officer: Detroit precinct's plumbing woes for filthy mess

A Detroit police officer says plumbing problems at a city precinct forced he and his colleagues to step over feces, toilet paper and urine for weeks as officials tried to deal with the mess.

The veteran officer says the backup at the city's 12th Precinct along 7 Mile Road made working conditions unbearable.

"Everybody needs to know," said the officer, who sat down with FOX 2 but wished to remain anonymous. "Everyone needs to know how we're being treated."

According to the officer, the sewage smells began to take over the men's locker room three weeks ago. "We complained about it," said the officer. "Everyone who came out made noise about it." But he says all that noise-making never made a bit of difference. "We just dealt with it like we've been dealing with everything else."

The officer says his colleagues were forced to step over feces, toilet paper and urine coming up from the floor drain in order to get their lockers. (See the photo gallery above for more pics sent in to FOX 2)

The officer says a shoddy cleanup job was executed, and yellow caution sign with a "bio hazard" paper taped to it was placed in the locker room. Officers were told to avoid the area and use the facilities in the front of the precinct.

The officer says since then, the building's plumbing problems have only gotten worse. He says a sewer backup in the prisoner area forced officers to move the inmates to different quarters. "They got them out of harm's way immediately. They basically told us we had to deal with what's coming up through the floor."

Detroit police spokeswoman Sgt. Eren Stephens did send FOX 2 photos Monday night of the cleaned up locker room. She did admit, however, that it took several days to clean up and disinfect the area.