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Officer Stress and Fatigue
By the National Institute of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
Causes of Officer Stress and Fatigue
Enduring stress for a long period of time can lead to anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is a psychological condition marked by an inability to be intimate, inability to sleep, increased nightmares, increased feelings of guilt and reliving the event.
For law enforcement officers, stress can increase fatigue to the point that decision-making is impaired and officers cannot properly protect themselves or citizens.
Factors That Can Cause Stress and Fatigue for Law Enforcement Officers
Work-related factors might include:
•Poor management.
•Inadequate or broken equipment.
•Excessive overtime.
•Frequent rotating shifts (see 10-Hour Shifts Offer Cost Savings and Other Benefits to Law Enforcement Agencies).
•Regular changes in duties — for example, spending one day filling out paperwork and the next intervening in a violent domestic dispute.
Individual factors might include:
•Family problems.
•Financial problems.
•Health problems.
•Taking second jobs to make extra income.
Impact of Sleep Deprivation on Police Performance
Sleep deprivation is comparable to excessive drinking. A sleep deprivation study found that not sleeping for 17 hours impaired a person's motor skills to an extent equivalent to having an alcohol toxicity of 0.05 percent. Not sleeping for 24 hours was equivalent to a toxicity level of 0.10 percent.[1] This level of deprivation would impair speech, balance, coordination and mental judgment.
Sleep deprivation can cause work-related accidents. A study found that four out of eight officers involved in on-the-job accidents and injuries were impaired because of fatigue.[2] Such accidents include automobile crashes that were due to officers' impaired eye-hand coordination and propensity to nod-off behind the wheel. Other work related injuries come from accidents that occur when officers have impaired balance and coordination.
Research shows that fatigued officers:
•Use more sick leave.
•Practice inappropriate uses of force more frequently.
•Become involved in more vehicle accidents.
•Experience more accidental injuries.
•Have more difficulty dealing with community members and other law enforcement agencies.
•Have a higher likelihood of dying in the line of duty.[3]
Despite the impact of fatigue, many officers continue to work double shifts, triple shifts and second jobs. Some work well over 1,000 hours of overtime a year. Excessive work with inadequate rest over a long period of time can make officers sleep-deprived — 53 percent of officers report an average of 6.5 hours of sleep or less.[4]
Notes
[1] Dawson, D. and K. Reid (1997). Fatigue, alcohol and performance impairment. Nature. 388:235. View abstract Exit Notice.
[2] Vila, B.J. (2000). Tired Cops: The Importance of Managing Police Fatigue. Washington DC: Police Executive Research Forum.
[3] Vila, B.J. and D.J. Kenney. (2002). Tired cops: The prevalence and potential consequences of police fatigue (pdf, 6 pages). National Institute of Justice Journal. 248:16-21.
[4] Dijk, D.J., D.F. Neri, J.K. Wyatt, J.M. Ronda, E. Riel, A. Ritz-De Cecco, R.J. Hughes, A.R. Elliott, G.K. Prisk, J.B. West, and C.A. Czeisler (2001). Sleep, performance, circadian rhythms, and light-dark cycles during two space shuttle flights. American Journal of Physiology. 281:R1647-R1664.
How Fatigue Affects Health
Fatigue can harm an officer's mental health by:
•Increasing mood swings.
•Impairing judgment.
•Decreasing an officer's adaptability to certain situations.
•Heightening an officer's sense of threat.
•Increasing anxiety or depression.
•Increasing the chances of mental illness (e.g., officers may develop post-traumatic stress disorder or bipolar disorder).
Fatigue can harm an officer's physical health by:
•Reducing eye-hand coordination.
•Causing an officer to gain weight.
•Causing pain (e.g., backaches, headaches).
•Making an officer unable to relax (e.g., cause restless sleep, provoke heightened alert response).
•Causing gastrointestinal problems (e.g., loss of appetite, abdominal distress or ulcers).
•Damaging the cardiovascular system (e.g., causing heart disease, arteriosclerosis or congestive heart failure).
Preventing Officer Fatigue
Law enforcement officers usually do not speak up about how stress affects their lives. Most departments have an unspoken code of silence about the stress and strain that comes with police work. For most officers, the work ethic and culture of law enforcement appears to accept fatigue as part of the job.
Additionally, managers do not always see how overtime causes work-related injuries and accidents. And many police officers are willing to risk their health because overtime provides additional income.
Some police agencies are trying to avoid officer fatigue by:
•Encouraging officers to engage in physical activity.
•Encouraging officers to take time away from work.
•Avoiding mandatory overtime hours.
•Discouraging officers from taking on second jobs or moonlighting.
•Creating schedules and policies that minimize overtime and shift rotation.
•Using technology or policies that reduce overtime. These technological changes might include:
◦Using laptop devices in cars to write reports.
◦Using a "call in" reporting system to deal with certain calls for service.
◦Allowing officers to process paperwork on calls for service at a later time.
10-Hour Shifts Offer Cost Savings and Other Benefits to Law Enforcement Agencies
Police executives can improve morale and reduce overtime costs by offering officers the option of working 10-hour shifts. Importantly, 10-hour shifts do not adversely affect performance, according to NIJ-funded research.[1] On this page find:
•Background of the Issue
•Overview of the Findings
•How the Research Was Conducted
Background of the Issue
Most police departments have traditionally placed their patrol officers on a 40-hour workweek in which personnel work five consecutive 8-hour shifts, followed by two days off. In recent years, however, an increasing number of law enforcement agencies have moved to some variant of a compressed workweek. Some officers work four 10-hour shifts weekly or three 12-hour shifts (plus a time adjustment to make up the remaining 4 hours of the standard 40-hour workweek). While this trend has been moving apace, few, if any, rigorous scientific studies examining the advantages and disadvantages of these works schedules for officers and their agencies have been completed until now.
The researchers used the most rigorous scientific techniques available: a randomized controlled experiment. The NIJ-funded study was conducted by the Police Foundation.
Overview of the Findings: No Impact on Performance, but Important Impacts on Other Outcomes
The results revealed no significant differences between the three shift lengths on work performance, health or work-family conflict. There were, however, important differences for other outcomes. The 10-hour shift offered certain benefits not associated with 8-hour shifts, and 12-hour shifts had some disadvantages.
Sleep and Fatigue. Significant differences were found in the average amount of sleep officers got across the 8- 10- and 12-hour shifts, but there were no differences in the quality of sleep. Officers working 10-hour shifts averaged significantly more sleep than those working 8-hour shifts. Officers working 12-hour shifts reported greater levels of sleepiness and lower levels of alertness at work than those assigned to 8-hour shifts. Officers on 8-hour shifts averaged significantly less sleep per 24-hour period and worked significantly more overtime hours than those on 10- and 12-hour shifts.
A 10-hour shift may be a good alternative to the traditional 8-hour shift in larger agencies; however, caution is advised when considering 12-hour shifts because of increased levels of sleepiness and lower levels of alertness. Indeed, researchers have noted that people underestimate their levels of fatigue, so officers may be sleepier than they reported while working 12-hour shifts.
In addition, past research has shown increased risks for accidents with increasing number of hours worked. Consequently, caution should be exercised when agency executives consider adopting 12-hour shifts.
Quality of Life. Officers completed several self-report scales as measures of their perceived quality of personal life and work life. The analysis of their responses showed no significant differences among the three shifts on the quality of personal life, but in terms of the quality of work life, officers working 10-hour shifts reported significantly higher quality of work life than those on 8-hour shifts. Officers working the 8-hour shifts in both sites reported the lowest quality of work life. No quality of work life benefits came from the 12-hour shifts. This is consistent with past research in other workplaces showing that those on compressed work schedules tend to rate them favorably or have increased job involvement or satisfaction.
Job Performance. The study focused on factors that are important in police performance, including interpersonal performance, driving safety, shooting performance and self-initiated activity. For all of these measures, there were no statistically significant differences across shift length groups.
The researchers collected departmental data and performance data from simulators to assess officer performance on each of the three shifts.
With regard to self-initiated activities, such as traffic stops and reports completed, some past studies in nursing showed a reduced work effort and a decrease in activities for people on 12-hours shifts. However, in this study, shift length had no impact on the number or quality of police self-initiated activities.
Impact on overtime. The most surprising finding was the reduced overtime of those working 10-hour shifts. This suggests a potential cost saving for agencies that offer alternative work schedules, especially 10-hour shifts in which officers worked an average of 4.78 hours less per two-week period than those on eight-hour shifts.
Officers on 8-hour shifts worked significantly more overtime (more than five times as much as those on 10-hour shifts, and more than three times as much as those on 12-hour shifts). The reduced levels of overtime for those working longer shifts suggest the possibility for cost savings for agencies that use compressed schedules. These findings are consistent with many past studies, but no past study used the randomized controlled trial techniques used in this study and thus seem to have had limited acceptance.
How the Research Was Conducted
Characteristics of Officers
Total Officers = 275
•128 from Arlington (Texas) Police Department
•147 from Detroit (Michigan) Police Department
Race
•59% white
•32% black
•7 % Hispanic
•2% Asian
Age
•48% 18-34
•38% 35-44
•12% 45-54
•2% 55+
Marital Status
•46% married
•44% single
•10 % unknown
Gender
•77% male
•23 % female
Years of Service
•44% 2-5 years
•36% 6-9 years
•19% 10+ years
To examine the extent to which shift schedules impact performance and safety, health, quality of life, fatigue and extra-duty employment, researchers selected two departments from different regions of the country and with different demographic composition: Detroit (Michigan) Police Department and Arlington (Texas) Police Department. Officers in both agencies were working traditional five 8-hour duty tours and their leaders were interested in examining the pros and cons of other schedule options.
Officers volunteered to participate and agreed to work three types of shifts for 6 months each: 1) five consecutive 8-hour days, 2) four consecutive 10-hour days, and 3) three consecutive 12-hour days. The shifts were day, evening and midnight shifts. The officers were randomly assigned to work the shifts between January 2007 and June 2009.
At the beginning and end of each 6-month period, researchers collected a range of data. Work performance and safety was measured using both laboratory simulations (for shooting and driving) and departmental data on performance. Health, quality of life, sleep, sleepiness, off-duty employment and overtime hours were measured by self-report measures, including surveys, sleep diaries and alertness logs. Fatigue was measured using objective, laboratory-based instruments.
Other Web Resources on Officer Stress and Fatigue
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Provides information on workplace safety and health, healthy living and injuries related to violence.
Comprehensive Police Fatigue Management Program
A study funded by the National Institutes of Health that examines the impact of sleep deprivation on law enforcement officers, and works to mitigate factors that cause police to lose sleep.
The National Center on Sleep Disorders Research
Established by the National Institutes of Health to combat health concerns for individuals who suffer from sleep disorders. The center provides research and training that addresses sleep disorders.
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health: Work Schedules: Shift Work and Long Work Hours
A center funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that examines and eliminates work-related stress, and the disease, injuries and fatalities linked to that stress.
National Institute of Mental Health
Offers information on mental health topics, including anxiety and depression. Offers links to local mental health services and clinical trials.
National Sleep Foundation Exit Notice
Informs researchers, practitioners and policymakers about the benefits of good sleep habits and teaches them how to identify the signs of sleep problems so that people with sleep disorders can be appropriately diagnosed and treated.
Date Modified: January 24, 2012
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