NEW HAVEN — The police chief has disciplined a string of police officers for sick time abuse, but some members of the department say it’s not just sick time that’s being abused.

So far, after the department conducted an internal audit of sick-day usage, Chief Francisco Ortiz Jr. has called at least 22 officers to his office for using too much sick time.

Of those, he suspended eight without pay for one to three days. The remainder got written or verbal reprimands.

The police union calls the suspensions "arbitrary and capricious" and has filed grievances in an attempt to get any suspensions overturned, said Sgt. Louis G. Cavalier, the union president.

In recent years, the question of sick time became a major budgetary issue in the city, with department heads and City Hall taking a much closer look at who was booking off and how often. In 2002, the Fire Department announced that it would begin visiting the homes of sick firefighters to make sure they were, in fact, sick.

For the last year, it’s been the police department’s turn.

From the city’s perspective, the problem arises because some officers view sick days as an entitlement to be used to extend weekends or, say, go to a baseball game.

Police spokeswoman Bonnie Winchester said the scrutiny is not exclusive to the police department.

"Throughout the city overall, they’re looking at the usage of sick time and trying to minimize the usage of sick time, unless it’s necessary," she said. "In cases where they’ve noticed a large amount of sick days being used, then they’ve spoken to those employees."

She said the department looked at both civilian employees and police officers.

"Absenteeism is deeply connected to productivity," said Tina Burgett, the city’s human resources director. "Citywide, we’re looking to reduce our sick leave by 30 to 50 percent."

The police department, aside from the Board of Education, has the most employees of any city department.

While excesses are not rampant, she said, "There’s abuse over there, and the chief is doing due diligence" with his discipline.

Earlier this year, the department audited sick time usage and compiled a list of who has used the most and when they used them.

For the most part, employees who booked off seven or more times over a six-month period were called to the chief’s office.

Cavalier said he wouldn’t gripe if an officer booked off and was spotted at a Yankees game or a wedding.

But instead, Cavalier said, the city created a threshold that constituted abuse if it was passed.

"To pick an arbitrary number and say once you hit the plateau that you’re abusing sick time?" Cavalier said incredulously. "It’s our position that the department never established that they weren’t sick."

Cavalier noted that one officer was suspended for a day and taken off the department’s dive team even though he could prove that many of his sick days were taken when his wife was in the hospital with an illness.

The union contract allows sick days for personal illness or illnesses for spouses, children and parents, but the chief didn’t want to hear the explanation, Cavalier said.

Officers accrue 1¼ days each month, totaling 15 a year, and can accumulate as many as 150.

When officers retire, they can either get a lump sum for unused sick days or "trade" them back to the city for increased pensions.