British Policing and the Ottawa Shift System Easing the Stress of Rotating Shifts

FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin,The, Jan, 2000 by Mike Simpson, Suzanne Richbell

Initial British police trials of the Ottawa shift system began in 1989. Since then, a number of forces have switched to the system and discovered numerous advantages. [34] These agencies found the system most useful for urban areas, where police can predict and define crime patterns. Also, the overlapping shifts allowed better matching of supply to demand; created flexibility for operations, training, and uninterrupted extended briefings; and encouraged a continuous police presence during shift changes. Additionally, longer shifts allowed more thorough and rapid investigations. Because of a greater number of rest days from working on an annualized hours basis, officer morale, welfare, and social life improved, and fatigue decreased with the removal of rapid shift changeovers and longer rests after working the night shift.

Conversely, agencies also discovered some disadvantages. Primarily, departments experienced difficulty in maintaining minimum staffing levels on any shift because of the five instead of four duty groups and in arranging overlaps between shifts to coincide with the peaks in local established crime patterns. Police forces also found the system unsuitable for rural areas, where crime proves less predictable and less frequent and geographical size creates a barrier to maintaining a police presence. The possible need for increased resources, such as extra police vehicles, during the overlap periods and problems with continuity of investigations caused by the 6 days off after working the night shift constituted additional disadvantages.

A CASE STUDY OF THE SOUTH YORKSHIRE POLICE

England and Wales have 43 independent police forces that vary in size. The smallest, the City of London, has 717 officers, while the largest, the Metropolitan Police Force, covers the rest of the Greater London area and has over 28,000 officers.

South Yorkshire consists of four main urban communities: Sheffield, Rotherham, Doncaster, and Barnsley. The South Yorkshire Police (SYP) has 3,071 officers and is divided into 11 districts (A to K) of various geographical sizes with different policing requirements. For example, H District comprises a strictly urban district, whereas J District contains a larger, more rural area covering both residential and small farming communities. Five of these districts have implemented the Ottawa shift system, while the others continue working the regulation or regulation with quick changeovers systems.

In July 1997, the SYP conducted a complete review of the Ottawa shift system. [35] This involved site visits to each district, distribution of a previously piloted questionnaire to 811 uniformed staff working the Ottawa shift system, and visits to three other forces (Avon and Somerset Police, Greater Manchester Police, and West Mid-lands Police) working the Ottawa shift system or other similar alternative shift patterns. Of the 811 officers surveyed, 549 returned their forms, giving a response rate of 68 percent. The review of the Ottawa shift system revealed both positive and negative results.