JERSEY CITY -- Mayor Steve Fulop's pledge to end a program that allows cops to make extra cash working off-duty jobs is leading to howls of protest from the city's police force.

The program is under fire thanks to a federal investigation that has led to guilty pleas from 10 people, including a former police chief, Phil Zacche. More cops are expected to be ensnared in the probe.

"For too long the program has been abused with police officers more focused on off-duty work than on-duty work," Fulop said in an email to The Jersey Journal. "The widespread corruption was known by countless officers within the department and the degree of abuse is astonishing."

The mayor's announcement, which he made on Twitter Tuesday following the sentencing of one of the officers charged in the federal probe, led to a flurry of criticism from police officers and their supporters. One city official reported receiving phone calls from 40 angry cops in the 10 minutes following the mayor's Twitter post.

"Mayor Fulop has shared no plan with the union regarding the future off-duty jobs," Carmine Disbrow, president of the Jersey City Police Officers Benevolent Association, said in a statement. "We'd much prefer to have this conversation with him face-to-face than through social media or the press. While we understand the need for change in the way assignments are distributed, we hope that he understands how critically important these jobs are to keeping Jersey City safe."

The officers who have pleaded guilty have admitted participating in a scheme that allowed some cops to accept payments for off-duty jobs they never worked. Cops in charge of assigning the jobs would accept bribes in exchange for approving phony pay vouchers. In a separate investigation headed by county prosecutors, four officers are accused of conspiring to falsify timesheets related to off-duty details. They have pleaded not guilty.

Relations between Fulop and the 900-officer police force are already strained, and cops predict eliminating off-duty jobs will further lower morale. Officers have battled the administration over Fulop's criticism of four cops later indicted over a high-speed pursuit in June; a contract dispute that landed with an arbitrator, who sided with the city; and the role of Public Safety Director James Shea, who officers have called an "absentee" leader who improperly performs the duties a uniformed chief should.

It's not clear when the changes will go into effect or how the city plans to replace off-duty officers, who man construction sites and provide security for private companies and at city parades and festivals. One source said Shea, a retired New York Police Department deputy chief, would like to mimic how those jobs are handled in New York City, where civilians often perform tasks off-duty officers handle on this side of the Hudson River.

Off-duty gigs can be lucrative, with pay rates ranging from $35 to $130 an hour. In 2017, cops made a total of $16,075,749 working off-duty jobs, more than double the $7.1 million the same cops made in overtime, city payroll records show. Six officers made more than $100,000 from off-duty work, and one, Marc Lavelle, earned $146,365, more than his base salary of $121,338, the records show.

Cops say off-duty jobs are especially important for rookie cops, who earn $37,000 annually and who, because of the arbitrator's decision, will not get a pay raise this year or in 2020. If Fulop follows through on his threat to end off-duty jobs, the officers say, cops will look elsewhere to work.

"You go to some of these hillbilly towns and they're making big dollars," Councilman Rich Boggiano, a retired police detective, told The Jersey Journal.

The administration believes its critics understate how much new officers bring in annually. Of the roughly 120 cops who joined the force since 2016, 27 made more than $45,000 last year counting overtime, city payroll records show. If their off-duty work is included, 29 topped $60,000.

The median income for a Jersey City police officer is $100,295.

Two ex-officers have been sentenced related to the federal probe, Christopher Ortega and Victor Sanchez, and both received three years' probation. The federal judge overseeing their cases, John Michael Vazquez, said they deserved to escape prison because they had expressed remorse and were unlikely to re-offend.

The county's case against Joseph Ascolese, Kelly Chesler and Michael O'Neill is set for trial in late February. The fourth officer who was indicted in that case, Michael Maietti, has agreed to testify for the prosecution.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.