Impact of long work hours on police officers and the communities they serve
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Police officers in the United States often are overly fatigued because of long and erratic work hours, shift work, and insufficient sleep. These factors likely contribute to elevated levels of morbidity and mortality, psychological disorders, and family dysfunction observed among police. Fatigue-related impairments to officer performance and decision making can generate unexpected social and economic costs. METHODS: Information was gathered from the literature and analysis of government data as well as meetings with sleep researchers, police executives, and union officials in order to understand the causes and consequences of police long work hours. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Long work hours and shift work threaten police officer health, safety, and performance. This situation is aggravated by understaffing associated with demographic shifts and new threats to homeland security. Ongoing research suggests that the police may be a useful model occupational group for basic and applied research on sleep, fatigue, and human performance.
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Operational realities can be exacerbated by fatigue, understaffing, and shift work.
“The operational realities can be exacerbated by fatigue, understaffing, and shift work [12,38,39,40,41,42].”
From Canadian Public Safety Personnel and Occupational Stressors: How PSP Interpret Stressors on Duty (2020) · cites this paper as [38]
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- Authors
- Vila, B.
- Affiliations
- Washington State University Spokane (US)
- Corresponding author
- Vila, Bryan
- ORCID
- Vila, Bryan
- Venue
- American Journal of Industrial Medicine
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2006
- Volume
- 49
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 972-980
- ISSN
- 0271-3586 (ISSN-L)
- 1097-0274
- OpenAlex
- W1976239280
- Cited by
- 179
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 11
- FWCI
- 6.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- American Journal of Industrial Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and Work-Related Fatigue
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Occupational Health and Performance
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Policing Practices and Perceptions
- Keywords
- long working hours, police officers, shift work, sleep deprivation, fatigue, officer performance, decision-making, understaffing, homeland security, occupational health, community safety, family dysfunction
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Data Collection, Fatigue, Health Status, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Personnel Staffing and Scheduling, Sleep Deprivation, United States, Police, Workload
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