Fatigue among police patrol officers arising from departmental policies and practices may degrade individuals' abilities and hence the performance of organizations. Few U.S. police departments have established comprehensive shift, work-hour, and fatigue management policies despite the well understood, long-standing, and profound influences that round-the-clock schedules have on worker health, safety, performance, job satisfaction, and family life. After reviewing the sources, costs, and impacts of fatigue as well as recent research into the prevalence of fatigue among police, the authors discuss policies and practices that police executives, managers, and supervisors can employ to minimize officer fatigue.
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