NCJ Number
146455
Date Published
Unknown
Length
185 pages
Annotation
The California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training conducted a survey to determine law enforcement agencies' experiences with various 8-hour, 9-hour, 10-hour, 12-hour, and other work schedules. Team and No Team alternatives were included in discussions of each work schedule.
Abstract
Respondents included 463 police and sheriffs' departments, State agencies, and university or community college police departments. The questionnaire was divided into sections covering patrol, traffic, investigation, and dispatch. Survey responses were categorized into six law enforcement types, 10 agency size groupings, and seven geographic areas. The results showed that, while 8-hour shifts were the most commonly used schedules in each of the four units studies, agency size affected the use of alternative work schedules. Almost half the responding agencies used more than one schedule type, depending on the functional area. The survey identified the three top advantages and disadvantages of each type of work schedule. Possible advantages included matching coverage to workload, reducing overtime, fixing days off, making patrol a desirable assignment, improving recruitment and retention, and giving more days off to officers. The list of disadvantages included lack of consistent supervision, less training time, lack of report completion, use of mandatory schedule, too many days off, lack of match between coverage and workload, increased overtime, increased officer fatigue and accidents, and inconsistent court appearances by officers. 98 tables and 10 appendixes