New 12-Hour Shifts for Ferndale Police Seen as a Win-Win

After more than 30 years of eight-hour shifts for the officers, come Jan. 1 that will change to 12 hours.

Ferndale Police Chief Tim Collins reported at Ferndale's City Council meeting on Oct. 24 that the change – which came on the request of the police patrol union – is expected to improve performance while offering other advantages for the department, the officer and even the environment.

Ferndale has two unions, one for command officers and another for patrol officers, both of which had to agree to the schedule change before going forward.

Statistically the 12-hour shift should save money by potentially lowering overtime costs for court appearances, Collins said. Currently, the department has to pay a premium for police officers to show up to court if their shifts are over and, if it is their day off, that same premium is doubled, Collins said.

With 12-hour shifts, which run 7 a.m.-7 p.m. or 7 p.m.-7 a.m., it will be easier to schedule officers for court cases. Additionally, Collins said, to accommodate the night platoon, the department and the will start having night court, which would start at 7 p.m. beginning Jan. 1.

Collins told the council that research has shown that nationally and locally, 12-hour shifts have improved the lives of officers.

Improving the lives of officers

In addition to these potential savings, Collins said the 12-hour shift is expected to streamline communication between command and the platoon and simplify scheduling as well as improve moral of the officers.

"Quality of life is improved," Collins told the council. "The night platoon will still be away from families at unconventional times, but will spend 22 percent less shifts away from the home.

"One officer already figured it out it's gonna save him $1,500 in gas."

Fewer days driving to work also means energy savings. "We're reducing our carbon footprint," Collins told council, with a smile.

The shifts will be based on 14-day cycles. So every 14 days the officer works seven days and has seven days off. Although this works out to 84 hours per officer every 14 days vs. 80 it results in the officer actually working fewer days – seven vs. 10 – than in an eight-hour shift schedule.

The new shifts will be worked by four platoons. There are two day-shift platoons, 7 a.m.-7 p.m., and two night-shift platoons, 7 p.m.-7 a.m.

The current shift system affords officers two weeks off for every six-week period, but the new system will give officers one weekend off every two weeks.

“Twelve-hour shifts is kind of a trend, a lot of police departments are going to it. It’s not anything unusual,” Collins said.

A disadvantage

A possible disadvantage to the move to 12-hour shifts is that it will be more difficult to hold an officer after an emergency, depending on the emergency, or to compensate for an officer calling in sick. 

Collins said that holding someone four hours over an eight-hour shift and then calling someone to come in early is easier to do and works well but to do so under 12-hour shifts is less realistic.

"We feel that it would  be too much to have to ask them to be more than 16 (hours)," he said. "That's one of the challenges we'll work through."

Impetus for concessions

Collins said the 12-hour shift came up during contract negotiations and was one of the stipulations that made it possible to get the patrol union's contract completed, which saved the city about $250,000 this year and next.

"This is one of the issues that the patrol union wanted very, very much. And our resistance against it was primarily because our command union wasn't so sure they wanted to do it at first," Collins said. "I didn't want to have a system where one group was on (eight-hour shifts) and one group on (12-hour shifts).

"The commands didn't really want to go to 12, but they acquiesced – and this was really how we got the union to take concessions. We've been going to school on this for about eight months."