This paper reports on a project aimed at examining the impacts of shift work on fatigue with the goal of improving police officers’ sleep, health, safety, and wellness.
The research reported here used a multi-phase and mixed methods approach in order to address four core objectives: to measure the effects of work schedules and sleep loss on Seattle Police Department (SPD) officer health, wellness, safety, and quality of life; to develop a fatigue risk management strategy that is informed by the data collected in the first objective; to use a randomized controlled trial (RCT) design to implement the resulting fatigue risk management strategy across the SPD, a large municipal police department; and to measure the effectiveness of fatigue risk management strategy. The research was guided by two main questions: what the effects are of shift work, work hours, sleep loss, and fatigue on police officers’ safety, health, and quality of life are; and if a fatigue risk management strategy can influence those effects. The report provides a project summary; a description of the various phases, from data collection and strategy development, to the measurement of strategy effectiveness; a discussion of the research’s expected applicability to policing agencies across the United States; an overview of the participants and other collaborating organizations; and a discussion of the research outcomes and results, with supporting data and charts.