Officers needs help ref 10 hr shift

[Swass209]

My Department is currently working straight 8 hour shifts and it is unanimous that no one likes how little time off we have. Our Administration is looking heavily at 10 hour shifts and has asked me to find other departments that work 10 hrs. Please let me know how your shifts rotate, Department name and contact information, and approx. how many officer on each shifts. We have about 50 road officers who will be going to a 10 hour shift. Please E-mail me any responses.

Thank you in advance for all assistance.
Swass209@aol.com

[Sgt-E]

Four years ago we went to 10hr shifts, which at first sounded good to the younger officers, three days off. However after less than a year we went back to 8hr shifts. Some of the reasons were the 10hrs ended up being 12 or more counting o.t. we also ended up being short of people to work, due to training, sick, vacations etc. One of the reasons the adaminstration went with this was they thought there would be more people to work the street, and it didn't happen.

[davey]

I'm from England, hope the reply is of use! Most of our forces still work traditonal 8 hour shifts. However, there is some argument that this is inefficient (lack of cover around shift change etc) and so in my area we are piloting a pattern of 3 x 11 hour days, with a mandatory 1 hour refreshment break mid-way, otherwise the driving gets too much.

It's early days but generally we all value the 3 day breaks, which result in some pretty nice weekends now and then!

[Sparky]

Everybody forgets about the night shift guys!

three days off doesn't do you much good if all you're doing is staying up all night and sleeping all day to keep your sleep schedule straight.

Ten is not as bad as eight. Worst is twelve. I hated those, and you'll have to hire a team of horses to drag me back to them.

I don't like this trend towards ten and twelve hour shifts. You don't really get more coverage, and most of the offciers who say they want more "free time with the family" are seen working part time jobs when not on duty.


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-Sparky
Fiat justina.

[Bill]

A lot of towns in NJ work 10.5 hour shifts but they have a 4on/4off schedule. This is by far the best work schedule i've ever seen.
There is even one town that works 12 hour shifts 5on/5off. Contact the NJSPBA.com for details.

[Swass209]

Bill,

Can you advise me which departments in NJ are working the 10.5 schedule. My administrators would like to contact them and see exactly how their rotation works.
If this is not possible just let me know.
You can E-mail me a response if possible.
Thanks in advance
Swass209@aol.com

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[connor]

Four years ago we were on 12's then our new chief came in and put us on 8's. That was a disaster. That was a disaster, tickets dropped, overtime went up, and everyone hated it. The chief finally relented and compromised with 10's. This has worked out well. We have a 7am to 5pm shift. A 5pm to 3am shift. And lastly a 9pm to 7am shift. This works out good. We get overlap during the busy 9-3am period and everyones happier than they were on 8's. Most of us still want to go back to 12's but 10's are better than what we had on 8's.