Of the 315 officers in the Bridgeport Police Department, 180 - or 57% - took part in a "no confidence" vote held by the Bridgeport Police Union Wednesday.

The vote comes amid allegations of retaliatory discipline and overtime practices "at odds with the union's collective bargaining agreement."

A total of 152 officers voted "no confidence" in Porter, while 27 cast ballots in support of the chief, according to a statement issued by the president of Local 1159, Michael Salemme.

"I’m proud of our membership for coming out and taking a stance against the hostile working conditions Chief Porter has created...and while I am pleased with the outcome, I am most proud of the solidarity amongst our brother and sister officers," said Salemme.

"We are asking for Chief Porter to resign or the mayor’s office to immediately replace him," Salemme said.

As the voting was taking place, a group of retired Bridgeport police officers held a rally at McLevy Green in support of Chief Porter.

"We support Chief Porter. He's done more with less. He is completely about community policing. I mean the man showed up at one of my classes where I teach at Housatonic to talk to the kids several times - so this is somebody that we believe in. And although you have the few at the Police Department that want to go after him, we support him," said retired Bridgeport Police Lt. Ron Bailey.

"No confidence" votes are purely symbolic and result in "no enforceable action," Porter told News 12 Monday.

"But I remain open to speaking, and working with, all members of this department, in the interest of making it better," Porter said.

Porter said violent crime "has seen a big decrease" since he took over as chief in December 2022.

Bridgeport Police Union Local 1159's President Salemme III released the following statement:

"Leadership took place today from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. 180 members came out to vote. 152 have no confidence in Chief Porter, while 27 do. One ballot was not properly marked and the ballot was disqualified. These numbers speak for themselves; I cannot recall ever seeing as many members take the time to come vote and, today, we saw more members come out to vote than what we see for union board and contract votes. It is not reasonable to expect every member to be able to vote, as there are factors such as child care, planned vacations, medical needs to consider, not to mention the inherent fear of retaliation.

The numbers don’t lie. As I previously mentioned, this isn’t about one or two members: officers of different genders, races and ethnicities, officers from different divisions and shifts participated. I’m proud of our membership for coming out and taking a stance against the hostile working conditions Chief Porter has created and while I am pleased with the outcome, I am most proud of the solidarity amongst our brother and sister officers. We are asking for Chief Porter to resign or the Mayor’s Office to immediately replace him."