As Compressed LAPD Week Nears Debut, Study Predicts Mixed Results

Just days before Los Angeles patrol officers are set to begin working 12-hour shifts, a city study predicted Thursday that the change will boost morale and recruitment, but may not reduce overtime and sick time as its proponents contend.

The study by the consulting firm Police Management Advisors also raises doubts about whether the three-days-a-week, 12-hours-a-day work schedule should be extended to detectives and some specialized officers such as helicopter pilots.

The $150,000 study was ordered by the City Council in July to help it decide what kind of compressed work schedule would work best if any change was needed.

Since then, though, Mayor James K. Hahn has put the new schedule on a fast track. The council last week voted to begin the plan Sunday at two police stations, and expand it to others later. Under the mayor’s plan, most patrol officers will work 12-hour shifts, with the rest working 10 hours a day four days a week.

The 95-page report released Thursday is just the first part of the study, with a final analysis to be released next month. That will look at additional issues, such as whether the schedule tires officers.

Some critics of the compressed schedule said the study raises serious questions about the benefits of having officers work 12- and 10-hour shifts.

Councilman Nate Holden, who voted against the program, called on Hahn to limit the plan to 10-hour shifts.

“I’m very uneasy because we don’t have any proof that it’s going to work,” Holden said. “It will not increase productivity, so it will not increase public safety.”

However, a spokeswoman for Hahn said he does not intend to stop the program. Spokeswoman Julie Wong said the study is encouraging for what it says about the mayor’s primary goal: to boost a depleted police force into a larger one better able to fight crime.

“The primary reason the mayor wanted this was to improve public safety, to better retain officers and make it easier to recruit officers,” said Wong.

Hahn, who endorsed the compressed work schedule during his race for mayor, also had said he thought it might reduce overtime and sick time and increase productivity. Though the study raises doubts about such benefits, “It’s not a setback,” Wong said.

The study surveyed LAPD officers, other departments and published analyses on the subject, and looked at a limited program tried but abandoned by the LAPD five years ago.

According to the report, 36% of police agencies nationwide use some form of compressed work schedule. But only two of 11 major agencies surveyed used a three-day, 12-hour schedule for some officers; none used it for their entire patrol division.

A four-day, 10-hour schedule is used by most departments on compressed schedules, and that would work for a department the size of the LAPD, the study said.

Departments using a three-day schedule found that it helped them retain and recruit officers, the study said.

“The majority of police officers that work 12-hour shifts like the schedule because of the additional time off that can be used for family and other personal activities,” the study said.

In a survey of officers who quit the LAPD in 1996, 41% said the availability of a compressed work schedule at other departments was a factor in their decision to leave.

The study said evidence is conflicting about whether the three-day schedule increases productivity and reduces sick time and many forms of overtime, such as that accrued when officers are called to testify in court.

“Despite claims to the contrary, the net impact on overtime is unclear, but appears to be largely dependent on the ability of the department to avoid increases in off-duty court time,” the report found.

A pilot program tried at four stations in 1995-96 did not adversely affect the department and did cut down on some overtime, but showed no significant change for emergency response times, crime rates, personnel complaints and productivity. A department analysis of the pilot program did not find any fatigue problems with the compressed work schedule.

On the downside, most LAPD detectives surveyed for the study said that a system of 12-hour shifts three days a week would hamper investigations. However, most thought working 10 hours a day four days a week would be manageable.

Wong said those sentiments will be considered as the city decides how to extend the new schedule to non-patrol units.