FULLERTON : Police Start New Work Shifts Saturday

As part of a police contract approved by the City Council last week, officers will start a new work schedule Saturday that is designed to provide more patrols on the streets.

Police in the patrol division will work three consecutive 12 1/2-hour days per week and one 10-hour shift per month, instead of the old schedule of four consecutive 10-hour days.

“This will help us maximize the patrol time,” said Police Chief Patrick McKinley. “Sometimes on the weekends we’d have good coverage, but we’d have too much during midweek,” McKinley said.

The new schedule eliminates overlapping shifts and will allow the Police Department to reassign two officers to foot beats in the Valencia Drive, Baker Street and Garnet Lane areas, which have been targeted for increased community policing, McKinley said. The new schedule will also free up two more officers for the gang-enforcement unit and one more for traffic duty, McKinley said.

There is no extra cost associated with the new work hours, and the change may even decrease overtime, he said.

“We think it’s a better deployment of manpower,” City Councilwoman Molly McClanahan said. The council approved the plan unanimously at its Feb. 15 meeting. It was also approved by the Fullerton Police Officers’ Assn.

At this point, the new hours are an experiment and will come under review in June and again in September, McKinley said. At that time, the Police Department and the City Council will look at response time to emergencies, overtime used, communication between shifts, sick leave and morale in deciding whether to keep the schedule, he said.