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05-17-2005 City Council Study Session PacketCity of Grand Island Tuesday, May 17, 2005 Study Session Packet City Council:Mayor: Jay Vavricek City Administrator: Gary Greer City Clerk: RaNae Edwards T u 7:00:00 PM Council Chambers - City Hall 100 East First Street Carole Cornelius Peg Gilbert Joyce Haase Margaret Hornady Robert Meyer Mitchell Nickerson Don Pauly Jackie Pielstick Scott Walker Fred Whitesides City of Grand Island City Council Call to Order Pledge of Allegiance Roll Call A - SUBMITTAL OF REQUESTS FOR FUTURE ITEMS Individuals who have appropriate items for City Council consideration should complete the Request for Future Agenda Items form located at the Information Booth. If the issue can be handled administratively without Council action, notification will be provided. If the item is scheduled for a meeting or study session, notification of the date will be given. B - RESERVE TIME TO SPEAK ON AGENDA ITEMS This is an opportunity for individuals wishing to provide input on any of tonight's agenda items to reserve time to speak. Please come forward, state your name and address, and the Agenda topic on which you will be speaking. Invocation - Pastor David Vaughn, New Life Community Church, 301 West 2nd Street MAYOR COMMUNICATION This is an opportunity for the Mayor to comment on current events, activities, and issues of interest to the community. City of Grand Island City Council Item -1 Discussion Concerning 12-Hour Shifts for Police Department Tuesday, May 17, 2005 Study Session City of Grand Island Staff Contact: Kyle Hetrick City of Grand Island City Council 1 12-Hour Shift Proposal Grand Island Police Department May 17, 2005 Summary We are always examining ways to provide better service to our citizens, make better use of our human resources, reduce overtime, and provide for a healthier/family-friendly and more productive work-force. The nature of policing demands twenty-four hour, 7-day-a-week, 365 days a year coverage. There are many different and varying work schedules used across the nation for police departments. Our analysis clearly shows that there is no single work schedule that fits the needs of every police department. The Grand Island Police Department has been on a 3-shift, 8-hour day schedule for the better part of forty years. We believe that there are distinct advantages to modifying the traditional 8-hour work-day for our Patrol Officers to the 12-hour schedule that will enable our department to achieve, to some degree, the aforementioned efficiencies. Research and Data To examine the effects of a 12-hour schedule we need to look at what research products are available on the topic, and to that end, we contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation staff library and obtained resource material from across the nation from agencies that have studied shift work, staffing, and compressed work-weeks. Our department has accumulated information from agencies within the state and other states that have been on a 12-hour shift schedules, some for over a decade. The overall anecdotal information regarding half-day shifts has been universally positive in nature. To focus on a research based analysis the following resources were used: · Issues and Practices: Police Work Scheduling, published by U.S. Department of Justice · Patrol Shift Schedule, FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin v64 · Screen applicants for shift compatibility, Society for Human Resource Management · The Impact of Compressed Work Weeks on Police Job Involvement, University of Ottawa 2 · The Ideal Work Schedule, Law and Order magazine September 2003 · The Importance of Managing Police Fatigue, Police Chief magazine April 2001 · Improving Shift Schedule and Work-Hour Policies and Practices to Increase Police Officer Performance, Health, and Safety, Bryan Vila, University of Wyoming, Gregory B. Morrison, Ball State University, and Dennis J. Kenney, John Jay College of Criminal Justice · Tired Cops: The Prevalence and Potential Consequences of Police Fatigue, by Bryan Vila and Dennis Jay Kenney of University of Wyoming and John Jay College respectively · Relationship Between Roster Type and well Being, National Occupational Health and Safety Commission www.worksafe.gov · The Switch to a 12-Hour Shift, by Chief Robert Metzger, Zeeland Police Department, Michigan · The Design of Shift Systems, Peter Knauth, University of Karlsruhe, Germany · Working 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Lovin’ Every Minute of It, by Connie R. Maiwald, John I. Pierce and John W. Newstrom with Brenda Paik Sunoo in Workforce magazine July 1997 · Alternate Team Staffing Concept Officers Benefits to Officers and Management, by Ron Allgower and Michael P. Henry, Law and Order magazine · 12 Steps to successful 12-hour Shifts by Steve Mardon, Power Engineering magazine November 1998 · Longer Days, Shorter Weeks: Compressed Work Weeks in Policing, by Arturo Vega and Michael J. Gilbert, Public Personnel Management magazine Fall 97 · Shift Work and Police Scheduling, by Todd Michael Shissler, Law and Order magazine May 1996 · A 12-Hour Solution, by Edward C. Byrne, www.lawandordermag.com We are proponents of modifying our present 8-hour work day, but even with that admitted bias, the overall theme of our research indicates more advantages than disadvantages in moving in this direction. The following information from three of the preceding publications are indicative of our findings. Quotes from “Longer Days, Shorter Weeks: Compressed Work Weeks in Policing,” by Arturo Vega and Michael J. Gilbert: (examined a 3-day compressed schedule) 1. “The findings of this research are consistent with previous evaluations of compressed work weeks in private industry. Positive impacts on both productivity measures and the self-reported attitudes of patrol officers are found. Furthermore, the quality of policing provided to citizens did not decline.” 2. “Among the commonly cited advantages of the compressed work schedule are improvement in work output, employee morale, customer and employee relations, and easier recruitment, as well as, corresponding reductions in absenteeism, turnover, tardiness, overtime, and operating expenses.” 3. “The advantages reportedly outweigh any disadvantages. Workers, for example, cite the larger block of usable leisure time, less commuting time, and greater opportunities for secondary employment as the most positive attributes.” 3 4. Attitudinal Findings: “Overall, 91 percent of the respondents expressed positive attitudes towards working the three day work week. In general, over 85 percent of the respondents reported that the three day work schedule increase their daily productivity, 94.1 percent created a more favorable attitude toward work, and 88.3 percent felt encouraged to do their best.” “These findings indicate that the compressed work schedule has had no negative effects on the patrol officers’ attitudes towards their fellow officers, their work or the department as an organization.” 5. Productivity Findings: “Productivity measures for both pre- and post- implementation periods for the target group produced mixed results. First, with regard to extra employment opportunities, patrol officers in the compressed work week are working roughly the same number of extra off-duty jobs per month (1.3 compared to 1.1) as they did in the year prior to the policy change. This finding suggests that patrol officers are not using the additional time off to work at more off-duty jobs but are using this time for personal and family activities. The target group of patrol officers made slightly more felony bookings under the compressed work week structure than under the traditional work week with 756 bookings the year prior, to 781 the year after implementation of the compressed work week. During the same period, these same officers made slightly fewer misdemeanor bookings, from 2,520 to 2,346. Neither of these differences was statistically significant.” 6. “Rather than fatigue, the most cited negative issue was the perception by officers of poor communication at shift change when returning to duty after four days off. This perception demonstrates the need for improved systematic briefings for officers returning to duty after four days off-duty.” From “Shift Work and Police Scheduling” by Todd Michael Shissler: 1. “The Palos Verdes Estates, CA, Police Department found out when it changed from an eight-hour shift with a shift change at 3 p.m., 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. to a 12- hour shift changing at noon and midnight, officers wrote 48.6% more traffic citations, and there were 12.8% more officer-initiated arrests.” 2. “Another department that switched to the 3-12 plan, the Louisiana Department of Public Safety, noted that their arrests rose by 26%.” “This precinct experienced a 55.9% increase in moving violations and a 42.8% increase in parking violations.” 3. “Some departments found that after implementing 12-hour shifts, it became difficult to maintain adequate staffing in non-patrol units, such as detectives.” 4. “Lt. Jaakola of the Palos Verdes, CA, Police Department said that retention of officers increased dramatically after implementing the 12-hour shift.” 5. “One thing that is particularly advantageous for police departments and administrative officers regarding the 12-hour shift is unscheduled overtime. This overtime has dropped dramatically, and they attribute it directly to working a 12- hour day. The Louisiana Department of Public Safety noted that their unscheduled overtime was reduced by 21% with the 12-hour plan. According to a Masters Thesis by Captain Patrick Dean of the Midland, MI, Police Department, overtime by that department fell by 25% the first year of the 12 plan.” “With only 4 two shift changes in a 24-hour period instead of the usual three, the number of possible occurrences of overtime from being held over on a shift is reduced by a third.” Excerpts from “A 12-Hour Solution” by Edward C. Byrne (an analysis comparing 8, 10, and 12 hour shifts) 1. “Twelve-hour shifts. The more the team explored this option, the more convinced it became that this option was the best. It was refined to become the team’s recommendation. Options 1 (8-hour rotating shift) and 2 (straight 8’s) provided continuity on each shift, and option 2 eliminated the problem of having officers reset their biological clocks. But neither option addressed the understaffing of patrols during times of peak demand for service, and overstaffing of patrols during slow times of the police day. 2. “While the city administration and elected officials see the fiscal benefits of the 12-hour patrol shift program. Chief Long feels the positive impact of the police department in the community is even more significant. ‘After nearly two years we’re reaping the benefits (and) not just the cost benefits,’ Long said. ‘We’re utilizing our time more effectively, doing things other than responding to calls and running radar here and there.’ The result has been a commitment to strategic police work, even in suc h seemingly routine things as traffic law enforcement and accident investigation. Now, when there is an intersection with a high rate of traffic accidents, Neenah police do more than just show up and write a ticket. They ask, why are we having accidents there? What can we do to prevent them?’ Long said, ‘We put together a statistical database and say: “Let’s effectively reduce that problem.’” Police Agencies Contacted Currently Working 12-Hour Shifts Bellevue Police Department – 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. with “power shifts” to cover changeover and high calls for service times. LaVista Police Department – 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. with power shift. Hastings Police Department – 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. with power shift of 2 officers working 12:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. North Platte Police Department – 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. with power shift of 2 officers working 3:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. Papillion Police Department – 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. with no power shift. Norfolk Police Department – 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. with 2 K- 9 Officers working a 2:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. power shift. Beatrice Police Department – 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. no power shift unless short staffed then a power shift from 2:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. Cedar Rapids, Iowa Police Department – 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 am with power shift 4:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. 5 Recommended 12-Hour Schedule Matrix for Grand Island Police Department The best 12-hour scheduling fit for our department would be two 12-hour shifts with an A and B team for 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (days) and an A and B team for 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. (nights). We would have early officers on each shift to cover for shift change plus our Traffic Enforcement Unit officers would act as the power shift on days and our K-9 Officers would provide this function for nights. 12-Hour Schedule Matrix Mon. Tue. Wed. Thu. Fri. Sat. Sun. Days A Team on on off off on on on Days B Team off off on on off off off Nights A Team on on off off on on on Nights B Team off off on on off off off (work 5 days one week 2 the next week; never work more than 3 days in a row) (Seven 12-hour days worked in 2 weeks for a total of 84 hours) The 12-hour staffing would require only 8 of our 9 sergeants presently assigned to supervision duties in the patrol division enabling us to assign a permanent supervisor to direct the Traffic Enforcement Unit, K-9 Unit, and HUD. Expanding the traffic unit has been a goal for our agency since 1998 as well as being able to have direct supervisor of our other patrol support functions. Each team will be further divided into South and North; a deployment strategy used for the past two years. The new scheduling has a very distinct advantage of having our supervisors work 100% of the time with the people they direct. Under an 8-hour schedule some supervisors saw their subordinates only 3 days-a-week. Every team member and their respective sergeants will have the same work schedule. Daily Patrol Staffing Level Matrix North Team A South Team A North Team B South Team B Days Sergeant Sergeant Sergeant Sergeant 4 Officers 4 Officers 4 Officers 4 Officers Nights Sergeant Sergeant Sergeant Sergeant 5 Officers 5 Officers 5 Officers 5 Officers (8 Officers 2 Supervisors on Days – 10 Officers 2 Supervisors on Nights) 6 Grand Island Police Department Organizational Chart 12-Hour Patrol Shifts CSO (5) XING (12) OFC SRO 5 DESK 1 RCD CLK (5) SGT (1) OFF MGR (1) SGT (1) CPT ADMIN (1) OFC (3) RCD CLK (1) OFC SRO 5 DESK 1 RCD CLK (1) CSO (1) SGT CID (1) LT CID (1) SGT DRUG UNIT (1) CPT CID (1) OFC (8) OFC (8) SGT DAY A (2) SGT DAY B (2) OFC (10) OFC (10) SGT NIGHT A (2) SGT NIGHT B (2) OFC TRFC (2) OFC K-9 (2) OFC HUD (1) SGT (1) PS Sec (1) CPT PTL (1) POLICE CHIEF 7 Budget Considerations Our overtime budget has been running around $300,000.00 a year. Approximately 25% ($75k) is for court appearances, 15% ($45k) on reimbursable grant projects, 1.5% ($4.5k) on reimbursable drug enforcement, 5% ($15k) on required training, and the remaining 53.5% ($160,500) goes to unscheduled overtime, i.e. carry-over reports at shift change and high profile labor intensive police situations. This latter number ($160,000) which is largely attributable to end-of-shift reports, would be effected in a positive manner by the implementation of a 12-hour schedule. We would automatically reduce the carry-over report opportunities by one third since there would be only 2 shift changes with a 12-hour schedule versus 3 shift changes on an 8-hour schedule. Additionally, there are enough “dead-time” hours in the 12-hour schedule to afford officers the time to complete necessary paperwork while on shift. Days will have the early morning hours (6 to 8 a.m.) to play catch-up and nights will similarly have on- shift hours to complete reports (4 to 6 a.m.). Our goal would be to reduce the unscheduled overtime by 25%; a $40,000 projected savings. Unfortunately, other unscheduled overtime is the result being totally reactive to police emergencies, i.e. homicides, serious assaults, weather disasters, etc., and by definition, is very hard to accurately predict for budget purposes. A possibility to re-address court overtime, though we have had limited success in the past, looms with the implementation of a 12-hour shift structure. As it stands now, the court clerks have to know and coordinate 77 different officer schedules which is an impractical task and judges simply will not consider when completing their dockets. With 12-hour shifts there are only 4 schedules in the patrol division for consideration when determining court appearances. We will seek to mitigate the $75k spent fo r court overtime as well. We will be asking each Officer and Sergeant assigned to the Patrol Division to work an extra 104 hours a year at straight time. This would be a $100,128.00 impact on the budget. Under the 8-hour schedule we would have been paying time and a half for those same hours or $150,192.00; a $50,064.00 difference. We will have 46 patrol division officers working 104 more hours per year for a total of 4,784 additional patrol hours on the job. This is the equivalent of adding 2.3 officers to our department. The cost of hiring a single officer is approximately $42,000 so the 2.3 officer cost equates to $96,600. Comparing the $100,128.00 that would be required to be added to our 2005-2006 budget year personnel line item, and the $96,600 manpower benefit, those two are almost a wash, however; factoring in the potential for reducing overtime as outlined above, going to a 12-hour patrol shift deployment is very sound fiscal sense. 8 Implementation We will be asking our officers in the patrol division to go from a 40 hour work-week to an 84-hour 2-week schedule. The extra 4 hours per officer will be paid at straight time and it appears that the vast majority of FOP members are willing to go along with this schedule, understanding the many benefits for their families. In July of 2004 the FOP took it upon themselves to poll their members on their attitudes regarding 12-hour shifts. Of the 71 members polled 77% had a favorable opinion or were ambivalent and 23% were opposed. Directing the work-force is a management responsibility but making this significant change will require the FOP to sign an addendum to the existing collective bargaining agreement. The existing agreement requires a 6-month notification by the city to the bargaining unit prior to the implementation of a new work-week. We would like to implement the new work-week in January of 2006 necessitating formal notification by the end of June of this year. Challenges A concern raised by most of the studies examined was how to get your officers up-to- speed after their 3 days off. The day-to-day police community history has some continuity because generally there were a couple people who worked the previous day. Not so with a 12-hour schedule. The entire team has the same days off. Most police agencies actually experience shift-to-shift miscommunication so passing on briefing information is critical. We have already examined ways to have an “electronic briefing” where officers get an actual printout or view screen ability to review the previous day’s or shift’s activity. Our present system does allow officers to hit an “involvements” button on their in-car computer that shows all previous activity at a specific address. Knowing the importance of communicating critical happenings and safety broadcasts, we will stress to our patrol supervisors to not let their crews hit the streets after three days off until their teams are fully briefed. Conclusion Having an additional 4,784 hours worked means better coverage, more protection, and a safer community. More hours means more criminals go to jail, more crimes become solved quicker, and more crimes are prevented. We recommend a 12-hour shift deployment strategy for the following reasons: 1. The extra time off strengthens the families of our officers creating a happier, healthier, more productive employee. 2. Better coverage for our community with more officers working each day means a more responsive and effective department. 3. Supervisors will be scheduled to work 100% of the time with the people they direct creating a tighter unity of command structure and a more cohesive team atmosphere. 9 4. The 4784 extra man-hours reflect an addition of 2.3 officers that have no extra benefits cost to the agency. There would be no need to purchase an additional vehicle and the accompanying equipment saving close to $50k. 5. There would not be a 9-month lag in deployment do to training requirements as in the case when we hire new employees. We gain experienced, seasoned, and trained enforcement hours versus the inexperience of new officers. 6. Overtime will be reduced. Respectfully Submitted.