January/2001
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TIRED COPS: Reviewed by Lynne Lamberg |
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Police officers averaged 6 hours and 37 minutes of sleep per day, a 1999 survey of four representative police departments in the United States shows. That's 20 minutes less than the average American adult gets, according to the National Sleep Foundation's 1999 Sleep in America poll. Sleep specialists say most adults need about 8 hours of sleep per night for optimal alertness. Fatigue curbs alertness, impairs performance, and upsets mood. These are worrisome consequences for police officers who often must respond fast yet are expected to make sound judgments. Police officers, particularly those on patrol, face many different types of emergencies. Their reactions may save their own lives and those of others--or endanger them. They often must drive, dividing their attention between traffic, sending and receiving messages, and watching for people who are breaking laws as well as those needing help. They may need to maintain alertness for long periods of inactivity or while they perform routine chores. In Tired Cops, Bryan Vila, a former police officer and chief, and associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Wyoming, documents the severity of fatigue in patrol officers. He also explores fatigue's detrimental impact on police work, and suggests preventive strategies, drawing on numerous scientific studies by specialists in shift work and sleep. Fatigue boosts the likelihood of police brutality, Vila asserts. Tired officers are more likely to be irritable and fearful, he says. As a result, they are more apt to react strongly in a threatening confrontation, and to use unwarranted or excessive physical aggression than they might if they were calmer and less anxious. "Of all the investigative commissions that have scrutinized dozens of police riots and scandals during the past hundred years," he notes, "not one has ever recommended limiting the hours that officers work, even though we've known all along that fatigue is the handmaiden of bad temper." Getting sufficient rest requires everyone to make sleep a high priority. But some work schedules facilitate--or sabotage--workers' best intentions. Many police agencies still rotate shifts weekly, the hardest schedule for the body to handle. Workers barely adapt before they must shift again. Moreover, police officers, like shiftworkers in general, typically revert to daytime schedules on days off to enjoy a more normal family and social life. Many police officers work overtime to meet their department's needs. Some voluntarily moonlight to earn extra income. There are no national and few local standards specifying how many hours officers may work in a day, week, month, or year, yet many work more hours than people in less-challenging jobs. Vila urges police departments to adopt new technology to enhance fitness on duty. The Army's Sleep Management System, for example, uses a wrist-worn monitor to assess the timing and amount of soldiers' activity and sleep and thus their general level of functioning. "Cops are a tough lot," Vila notes. "They have to be." That mindset can make it hard for tired cops to admit they need a break or even to lobby for better schedules. This book just might sound a wake-up call. |
Copyright (c) 2001
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