Ventura Patrol Officers Prepare for a 3-Day Week

In a bid to cut overtime, boost morale and build on its new community policing program, the Ventura Police Department plans to put patrol officers on a three-day workweek.

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The plan, expected to be approved by the Ventura City Council on Monday, would begin July 15.

Under the plan, the department’s 60 patrol officers would work three 12 1/2-hour shifts each week and an additional 10-hour shift each month. Detectives and administrators would continue to work 10-hour shifts four days a week.

“I’m a strong proponent of it,” Councilman Steve Bennett said. “It will improve the police officers’ family life.”

At least three other council members, including Mayor Tom Buford, said they also support the compressed schedule.

If approved, Ventura would follow several other Southern California law enforcement agencies such as the Los Angeles and Anaheim police departments in embracing the three days on, four days off schedule.

“It has not produced any operational problems and it is very popular with the officers,” Anaheim Police Chief Randy Gaston said. Anaheim put its 180 patrol officers on the schedule three years ago.

“The patrol coppers love it,” said Bruce Bottolfson, president of the Anaheim Police Officers Assn. “It is certainly a morale booster.”

It is hoped that the new schedule will curtail burnout by giving officers four days off while at the same time cutting down on overtime costs, Bennett said. The city pays police officers about $300,000 a year in overtime, Assistant Ventura Police Chief Randy Adams said.

“Over 40 agencies in California have gone to this plan and without exception, all claim an overtime reduction,” he said. He also said he expects fewer sick days to be taken.

Further, and most importantly, Adams said, the new schedule would let officers work in units of five or six “cohesive teams,” which fits in with the department’s community policing program. Each team would have one supervisor and be assigned to one neighborhood.

“That sounds like a good idea,” said David Kennedy, a criminal justice researcher at Harvard University. “Good police work relies heavily on dependability and camaraderie. Officers value predictability.”

The police officers’ association overwhelmingly approved the plan 82 to 3, police union officials said.

“I think its probably good for a lot of guys,” said William Dzuro, past president of the Ventura Police Officers Assn. “But that is a long shift. It does have its good points and its bad points.”

The bad points: Some officers wonder about the 11th hour of a shift and how well they would be able to make split-second, life-or-death decisions.

“Twelve hours is a long shift,” said Morton Feldman, executive vice president with the nonprofit National Assn. of Police Chiefs in Florida. “If you have folks that aren’t in good shape they’ll have trouble being vigilant that long.”

Other law enforcement officials, including Oxnard Police Chief Harold Hurtt, are concerned that beat officers could lose touch with the neighborhoods they patrol if they are out of the community for four days at a stretch. But Hurtt said his department is considering adopting the same schedule.

“We are still in the early stages,” Hurtt said. “We haven’t looked at it enough.”

Meanwhile, Anaheim’s Gaston said there have been some communication problems between officers who work the same beat but on different days.

“When I first considered the idea, I had some reservations,” Chief Richard Thomas said. “But after researching the issues, I found that my concerns were paper tigers or that other agencies with the schedule had ways to deal with the concerns.”

Thomas said the 12-hour shift “is not that big of a jump for us,” because most officers now work 10-hour days.