PoliceLink

Our Department recently began discussing the rule of mandatory shift rotations from graves to days once every two years.  This policy is deemed necessary because of the benefits it yields to officers.  Does anyone have any knowledge of any studies conducted on this topic and whether or not it is beneficial?

 There are studies that show there are health problem from rotating shifts. Rotating shift workers typically sleep one to four hours less than average, and often feel fatigued when they’re awake.For example, a disrupted circadian rhythm may influence cancer progression through shifts in hormones like melatonin, which your brain makes during sleep. And, studies have linked night shift work to an increased risk of, Prostrate Cancer, Heart Disease and Gastrointestinal Problem

It seems like the main issue with rotating shifts has always been the frequency that you have to rotate.  I've seen some departments rotate every two weeks, which everyone says is BRUTAL.  Two years would make the rotation easier to adjust, but some officers would seldom get to their preferred shift.  I'm guesing somwhere in the middle would let you adjust your schedule, but spread the preferred shifts around.

The POA believes that senority is the overall rule.  We, being a young board are trying to understand the issue better and if any studies either by University or Department indicate that it does benefit employee growth, then there would definately be a change in our stance.  Are alot of the mandatory rotations out there between days and nights or beginning of week to end of week? Thanks

We used to do a mandatory year rotation for rookies so that they would experience the different types of calls on all three shifts. However, we have gone away from that. In my opinion, we should still do that because i have seen two or three year officers who have had to change shifts and not know certain aspects of their job because of lack of experience. I have also seen as a supervisor how someone can get very stagnant and complacent on one shift, especially days and midnights. Evening shift is not so common because of the varying types of calls. In regards to studies done about this subject, I have read and I apologize for not being able to site particulars but staying on a shift like midnights is also detrimental for those individuals. Issues abound from lack of sleep over a long period of time and as someone mentioned earlier, their natural body rhythm is disrupted just for the pure fact that they work at night. The other problem for my department is the large disparity between seasoned officers and new officers. Predominantly we have all our senior officers on day shift with midnights taking the 1 to 5 year officers. We are currently looking into a 12 hour schedule with rotations every six months.

We used to rotate every 2 weeks, then we went to permanent shifts (I spent 2 years on days).

Then we started rotating every 3 months.  I loved the nights but hated the days.

Now we are permanent again.  I have been on nights now for about 6 years.  We rotate 1 weekend a month, so we have 1 night weekend, and 1 day weekend.

I enjoy it because there are officers on days who hardly ever have to work the bars or parties.  We appreciate the break.  I don't want to give up nights, but I do like a couple of days of change a month.

We work a 6x6 2 days, 2 nights rotation, 12 hours each. Four on, four off. Talk about messed up sleep pattern, you have day off sleep, day shift sleep and then nights sleep all in one week. The four days off are nice, and when you talk holiday leave that translates in to 12 days off.

It's interesting that a friend of mine attended a mandatory "wellness" seminar at her federal job a few years ago and the one topic was retirement. The speaker referred to the fact that for a period of time Police Services, and Officers, in Ontario had stopped paying in to our pension plans because of a huge surplus. The money we saved went in to our pockets. The sad fact was the surplus came about because the pension plan expect sto pay out for on average 18 years after an officer retires. The average at the time was TWO years surviving  after retirement.

So yes, rotating shifts are hard on the body. It's been studied and proven over and over again. Should have been a teacher...