Shift Work, Sleep Disorders, Health And Safety

Dr. Gilmartin believes that hypervigilance is the way law enforcement officers must view the world. He stated that “officer must learn to perceive the world as potentially hazardous in order to survive the streets.” Hypervigilance allows an on-duty officer to develop the perceptual set of skills for officer safety. Every decision made by officers is based on the set of perceptual set of hypervigilance. A hypervigilance officer may experience increased blood pressure, blood sugar, heart rate and etc. But effects of hypervigilance can take a toll on an officer personal life and psychologically over a significant course of time.

* The police has many dangers due to the criminals is society today. Officers may be fired at while on duty, injured on a pursuit, or even on a simple traffic stop. Another danger with police is the amount of stress they receive while providing service.

In the current world, the culture of operating on little sleep seems to be regarded highly. Nowhere is this phenomenon more profound than for 911 telecommunication dispatchers. These employees, who consider sleep deprivation not as unique to their schedule, constantly have to respond to callers and coordinate services to emergency situations involving fires, health situations, burglary cases, car chases, and other situations needing emergency help. However, the effects of sleep deprivation on these workers can be monumental, given that sleep is critical for the normal functioning of the human body. Against this grounding, this article describes the effects of sleep deprivation on 911 telecommunication dispatchers and cites some of the incidents where deprivation caused wrong services to be dispatched, highlights how lack of rest can affect the mood and health of the person and put the lives of the citizens at risk. In addition, illustrates how sleep deprivation jeopardizes the employee, company, and the county the 911 agency represents with regards to law and accountability.

Stress can cause officers to develop depression, and it can cause them to have problems at home and work. As a result, officers are two times more likely to commit suicide than civilians are (Grant & Terry, 2008). With that being said, there needs to be more avenues for help out there for officers to be more successful in managing their stress. Help could come in the form of better training for new recruits regarding stress and better counseling services for current police officers. Stress will continue to be an issue within law enforcement, and it will only get worse in the future of policing. That is why it is important to develop measures now to help officers manage their stress levels instead of waiting. It is a known problem now, so why not develop a plan to combat it?

Officer fatigue can be a quite serious problem for police departments. Excess fatigue will generally reduce alertness, decrease performance and worsen mood. These symptoms can reduce officer's performance and safety with potentially life-threatening effects. Patrol officers are expected to remain alert and able to resolve complex, emotional, and potentially dangerous situations. They are expected to be able to multi-task, as well as stay alert during periods of inaction. These activities can be quite difficult for a fatigued officer to complete (Vila 1996). Community oriented policing efforts can be seriously compromised by officer fatigue with excess officer fatigue harming community-police relations (Vila & Taiji 1999).

The impact of rotating shift work on police officers in terms of fatigue, increased stress, and other long term medical problems cannot be overstated. In 2011, an in-depth research project, “Sleep disorders, health, and safety in police officers” (JAMA, 2011), was conducted involving a group of North American police officers in regards to the sleep disorders and the health and safety of the officers participating. The study involved 4,957 officers that worked rotating shifts over a period of approximately two years. The findings were startling and revealed that 3,930 officers (79.3%) were overweight or obese. Another 40.7% tested positive for at least one (1) sleep disorder and the majority of those that tested positive for a disorder

In addition, police officer exposed to high levels of stress relate to their job have been at an increased risk for adverse health problems, including depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder, (Grant & Terry, 2012).

As crime coexists with humanity, the presence of the police force ensures the suppression of crime and the safety for our society. Every occupation has its own work stress. What is unique is all the different stress found in one job. Aside from the heroic services police officers perform in their duty, they experience overwhelming stress in their daily duty. Police stress refers to the negative pressures related to police work (Police Stress, n.d.). In order to maintain peace and order, there must be an effective police force up and running. For that to happen, departments need to be aware and deal with the negative effects caused by police stress. Whereas, police officers must conquer their stress in order to work at their

Law enforcement officers have encountered some very deadly days. The life of a law enforcement officer is one of constantly being aware of your surroundings, dealing with the uncertainty of not knowing the individuals you have to approach, and being able to cope with the visual images seen after vicious crimes. The life of a law enforcement officer, who protects and serves, is both challenging and rewarding. The first law enforcement system was established in Boston, Massachusetts over 350 years ago. During this time in the Colonies that were not heavily populated, the sheriff served as the main law enforcement officer. During the 1800’s, 24-hour law enforcement service and systems similar to what is used today began to emerge (NLEMI). Law enforcement officers face incredible dangers. With over 900,000 law enforcement officers nationwide the Federal Bureau of Investigations reported approximately 1,165,383 violent crimes in 2014. Approximately one law enforcement officer dies every 61 hours (NLEMI).The law enforcement profession is the most challenging and dangerous career, because officers must be aware of every law and action they take at all times, manage constant training and stress, and protecting others as well as themselves in the line of duty.

“Sleeping while on duty” or “sleeping on the job” are terms that describe a worker falling asleep while working at an occupation (Fallis, McMillan, & Edwards, 2011). In the United States certain higher risk jobs involving security, safety, or health of others (such as nursing), the penalty for being caught sleeping on the job can range from disciplinary action to immediate termination of employment (Fallis, McMillan, & Edwards, 2011).

Officers, stress plays an important role in the effectiveness of a police officer both on and off duty. Police officers face several types of stress while on the job. The most common stressors come from internal and external factors. Eustress is a common type of stress that is normal and good, even considering the nature of the job of police officers. Distress is behavior outside of the normal range and is harmful to police over a long period of time. Within the department, internal stress factors include officers facing long hours, constant shift changes, issues of pay, lack of promotions, and excessive paperwork. Some external stressors include overly critical media coverage of police activities and investigations, lack of community support, overly lenient courts, and an ineffective criminal justice system.

Interestingly, physical danger is ranked low on the list of stresses by police officers! A study of 2376 Buffalo NY police officers found that compared to the white male population police officers had higher mortality rates for cancer, suicide, and heart disease (Constant). Suicide is one of the worst effects that stress can have on police officers.

The effects of long work hours, resulting in insufficient sleep have been well documented (Rogers, 2008). Insufficient sleep alone has been noted to cause cognitive problems, mood alterations, reduced job performance, reduced motivation, increased safety risks, and physiological changes (Rogers, 2008). Failure to obtain a sufficient amount of sleep is even an important contributor to medical errors (Rogers, 2008). Now think of the effects of sleep, and add in stressful work environments, short-staffing, pressure from administration, and unexpected events, we can begin to realize how patient outcomes may be greatly compromised.

Reasons why I should not fall asleep on duty. If I was to get called to a traffic accident or a domestic dispute I would not be able to respond because I would be asleep. Therefore I would not be able to complete my duties as a military police officer. Being a military police officer I should up hold the standards and the law appointed to me by the United States army. If I was asleep during an active shooter event that may take place at a bank or maybe the commissary, possibly even the PX in Hainerburg housing I would not be able to respond accordingly do to my current state. Being a military police officer means that I will be discipline physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my officer tasks and duties. For instance if

The fatigue associated with working the night shift was brought into the spotlight after an aircraft incident that occurred on June 10, 1990. British Airways flight 5390 had just departed from Birmingham International Airport when the aircraft experienced a rapid pressure loss due to the pilot’s windshield blowing out of the aircraft. This resulted in the pilot being sucked halfway out of the aircraft and another flight crew member grabbing the pilots belt and holding him from being sucked completely out while the copilot to take control of the aircraft and land it safely at a nearby airport. The official findings of the accident investigation linked the windshield blowout to the wrong size bolts being installed. The bolts were installed early in the morning hours and the fatigued shift maintenance manager who installed them didn’t recognize that they were the wrong bolts. He thought that the countersinking on the window was unusually large (Baron, 2009). This is just one example of mistakes made on night shift due to fatigue. Fatigue is a dangerous human factor that is present in the aircraft maintenance community.