Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

I am looking at several departments in my area that range from an 8 hour shift that is 3 on 3 off 3 on 2 off, to 12 hour shifts with 4 on 2 off schedule. In your opinion, is a 12 hour shift at that kind of work week unmanageable for a starting pay of $38,000? According to their website the pay does not increase for at least a 18 months when i am able to be promoted to officer first class (the dept provides a take home car for people who live near the county line or in county)

If you want the job , you will take the pay. Starting pay doesn't show holidays , OT etc. You will make more. And payraises to follow.

Shifts will vary greatly.

My first ( and worst ) schedule was 2 days , 2 2nds and 2 mids followed by 2 days off. I also worked perm 2nds , rotating 2nds and 3rds , 12 hr shifts of 4 weeks mids and 2 weeks days.

Back in the dark ages I started at $16,187.50

did you ever find a 12 hour shift to be too long to function effectively?

If you get the job, you work whatever schedule they say. If you can't then don't take the job. How bad do you want the job?

Everything has tradeoffs. 12 hour shifts mean you have long weekends. I like 10 hour shifts, myself.

I worked 12-12-off-off-12-12-12 week one 6a-6p

off-off-12-8-off-off-off week two 6a-6p

Repeat that sched one more time.

Then 12-12-off-off-12-12-12 week five 6p-6a

off-off-12-8-off-off-off week six 6p-6a.


This was my 6 week rotation , 4 weeks of days with 2 weeks of nights.

Other squads worked 4 weeks of nights then 2 weeks of days.

A 12 hr shift is quite doable. If you work an 8 , you dont go home and go to bed. You do other things like mow the lawn , shop etc.

Beyond 12 can get a little dicey but 12's are very doable and I did this until I was 48.

alright thanks Mcsap and ET109. Mcsap, that seems like a pretty good schedule you had, at that schedule it seems completely manageable. I will keep that department in mind then when i begin to apply for positions

One big problem with 12's is when you work midnights, then have court during the afternoon.

My old department worked 9 weeks of 9 hour days, 5 on 3 off. The tenth week was 5 on 2 off. Someone on crack wrote the schedule.

My current department is 4 10 hour shifts, then 3 off. I love it.

Court for 12 hour night shifts just plain sucks.
I work currently, 18:00 to 06:00 court is normally at 10/11:00 in the morning. Thankfully I rarely have to be present, and we do all of ours on the phone, so I can get dressed in a business casual, come in and leave.

I work 9pm-5am. I have Wednesdays and Thursdays off every week. We bid on shifts and days off once a year and you stay on that shift all year unless promoted or such.

I love night shift. More action. Only having off Wednesdays and Thursdays sucks sometimes but i got used to it.

When we have the bodies (haven't had them in about 5 years) we run 10 hour schedules (4 on, 3 off). I prefer them for the extra day off. However, since we have been short staffed we haven't be able to schedule 10s and we are on normal 8 hour shifts.

My current schedule.

Monday ( if I want)

Tue ( if I want )

Wed ( if I want )

Thur ( if I want )

Fri ( if I want)

Sat ( if I want and that is rare)

Sun No.

On the " if I want " days I typically work 7-4 but can come in whenever and leave whenever. Last night I had to go to a crash in Delaware so I ended up working 7-8 ( 13 hrs).

I am hourly so if I don't work , I don't get paid. The more I work , the more I get paid. :)

Oh yeah....I should mention that I am retired and working " part-time".

All police schedules suck, for one reason or another. Shift work is a nature of any 24-hour operation. If you want to be a cop, you have to understand this.

Maybe I was "ate up" with wanting to be a cop, but I didn't give a rat's *** about schedule, pay, etc. I just wanted to be a cop. I'd have done it for free if they'd have let me. Of course things change, but that certainly wasn't my attitude at the time.

On the subject of pay, I only make $500 a year more than the figure you posted and I've been a cop for 5.5 years.

All police schedules suck, for one reason or another. Shift work is a nature of any 24-hour operation. If you want to be a cop, you have to understand this.



Yep. I liked night shifts when I was in uniform. And when I was younger, I didn't mind weekdays off at all. Fewer people were out doing what I like to do, like fishing on Wednesday and Thursday than on weekends.

I preferred a 4 - 10 schedule myself. My last three or four years I had FSS off. I was grateful we didn't have rotating shifts, they suck. I liked to be able to look at a calendar three months from now and know what days off I'll have without having to count the days too.

Court for 12 hour night shifts just plain sucks.
I work currently, 18:00 to 06:00 court is normally at 10/11:00 in the morning. Thankfully I rarely have to be present, and we do all of ours on the phone, so I can get dressed in a business casual, come in and leave.
this dept. promises a minimum 4 hours of paid OT for every court date i would have to appear for so that is a good benefit, and 1800-0600 seems like a good time to work at, i'll have to look into them and see what their work schedule is for the 12 hour shifts