Fatigue is killing police officers and damaging the fragile trust between law enforcement officers and the communities they serve. Sleeplessness and tiredness are unspoken realities that police officers accept as part of the job. Just ask any cop, are you tired? How much sleep have you gotten over the past week? The answers may be shocking. The demands of modern policing require officers to be ready to perform the essential functions of the job, responding to emergencies and protecting life and property, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Law enforcement agencies schedule officers around the clock on a variety of work schedules to meet these demands.
Traditional 5/8 (five 8-hour shifts) workweeks have given way to nonconventional work schedules such as a 4/10 or a 3/12 workweek. The prevalence of overtime and court testimony, often required on a day off, exacerbate the problem. The combination of working all night and working longer shifts are of paramount concern. The human body was not built to stay awake all night.1 Disrupting the body’s natural circadian rhythm leads to health problems and diminished mental capacity—these serious consequences are not only detrimental to the health of individual officers, but they can lead to tragic outcomes on duty. As severe as the problem is, though, police departments can do much to remedy it.
Physical and Mental Effects of Fatigue
How significant is the problem? A familiar and easy to understand comparison is that fatigue mimics alcohol impairment. A study by the University of New South Wales in Australia found that after 17 hours of continuous wakefulness, an individual experiences a decrease in performance equal to that experienced with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.05 percent. After 24 hours, the performance decrease is equal to a 0.10 percent BAC.2
Sleep disorders and chronic health problems are additional direct consequences of fatigue. In a study examining undiagnosed sleep disorders of almost 5,000 North American peace officers, researchers found that more than 40 percent of participants screened positive for at least one previously undiagnosed sleep disorder. Unfortunately, sleep disorders are not the only danger. Fatigue may also increase the risk of more deadly diseases. Related health issues include an increased likelihood of diabetes, depression, burnout, gastric intestinal disorder, anxiety disorders, and cardiovascular disease.3
Cancer and cardiovascular disease are leading causes of morbidity for public safety workers. Research indicates that night shift work may increase the risk of cancer in public safety workers by disrupting circadian rhythms. Conditions such as coronary artery disease and sudden cardiovascular death are common among public safety workers. Unlike other professions, long hours, coupled with high stress, contribute to these chronic diseases.4 In addition to the negative health consequences of fatigue on the human body, there are also significant diminished cognitive effects.
Research into police officer fatigue confirms that it worsens mood and adds to the likelihood of poor judgment and the misuse of force. These outcomes have a significant impact on the fragile trust a community has in its police force.5 The nature of shift work, as well as other associated factors, significantly decrease the amount of sleep cops are regularly getting. Therefore, fatigued police officers are more likely to suffer from sleep-related health issues, worsened mood, and diminished cognitive ability, which may result in unintended outcomes of interactions with community members.
Deadly Costs of Fatigue-Related Incidents
Although sleep disorders and health problems associated with fatigue are significant and impactful to police officers and their families experience these issues, the diminished cognitive ability related to fatigue may have profound consequences on society. Fatigue can be catastrophic, as shown by disasters such as the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and the Staten Island Ferry crash.
At Chernobyl, night shift workers made a critical error and accidentally shut off cooling systems, which resulted in a devastating explosion. The Exxon Valdez oil supertanker struck a reef resulting in the spilling of over 20 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound. The investigation into this collision found that the first mate had been on duty for more than 30 hours, and the third mate had slept for only six hours in the previous 48 hours. In 2003, the Staten Island Ferry in New York crashed into a dock at full speed after the assistant captain had fallen asleep. Eleven passengers were killed, and more than seventy people were injured.6 Unfortunately, critical fatigue-related errors also result in life-altering outcomes in encounters with the police.
Research related to law enforcement found that fatigue negatively impacts officers’ accuracy in decision-making and reaction times. Specifically, poor sleep quality, total time awake, additional days worked, and working night and swing shifts all decreased the accuracy of officers’ decision-making. This was especially true when officers were presented with shoot/no-shoot and ambiguous scenarios.7 When police officers make mistakes, the costs are high. Lives may be lost, and the inevitable lawsuits are expensive. In 2015, the 10 cities with the largest police departments in the United States collectively paid out $248.7 million in settlements and court judgments. This is up 48 percent from $168.3 million just five years prior in 2010. During those five years, those same cities collectively paid out over $1 billion in settlements. The settlements included police misconduct cases involving alleged beatings, shootings, and unlawful imprisonment.8 Although research has yet to establish a causal link between fatigue and amounts awarded in settlement and court judgments, one case points to the financial impact of officer fatigue on litigation. In 2018, a Dallas, Texas, police officer, after having worked an extended shift, came home and entered the wrong apartment, only to shoot and kill the resident, mistakenly believing he was a burglar inside the officer’s apartment. At trial, the police officer’s attorney raised chronic fatigue as a defense and called a renowned fatigue expert from Harvard University to testify in court.9 Ultimately, a jury convicted the officer of murder. While the criminal case is over, the civil trial is still pending.
Preventing Fatigue?
So, how can law enforcement agencies mitigate fatigue? One possible solution is through the implementation of strict scheduling guidelines. In December 2019, a panel of police supervisors from the Brea, California, Police Department was convened by this author to discuss the subject of this research. The panel identified scheduling guidelines the agency had crafted and implemented throughout the last three to four years with the specific intent to mitigate fatigue. These guidelines included
- Prohibiting police officers from working more than 16 hours within the last 24 hours
- Mandating that officers have 10 hours off in between duty assignments
- Barring police officers from working more than 120 hours in a two-week pay period
- Mandating that officers should not work more than six consecutive days without a full day off
Despite these well-intentioned guidelines, however, one significant flaw remains. Although these guidelines strictly regulate how many hours a police officer can work and how much time off an officer has in-between duty assignments, there is no way to ascertain how well-rested an officer is when reporting for duty. Fortunately, technology may provide the answer to this conundrum.
Smart Technology to Monitor Police Officer Health
Advancements in wearable health monitoring technology allow the collection and analysis of biometric data that can shed light and provide fatigue mitigation. On the software and application front, just getting officers to track and identify when they are fatigued is a move in the right direction. Dr. Bryan Vila, known for his research on officer fatigue, is working on developing an application to do just that. The app, called BeSharp, uses an algorithm and draws upon decades of research to help identify when an officer is fatigued. Using a combination of manual data entry and information collected via a wrist actigraph that measures wakefulness and sleep, the application will send the users alerts throughout their shifts indicating when their cognitive ability, hand-eye coordination, and reaction time have likely been impaired, and alerting them that it is time to call for relief.10 Wearable health monitoring technology, particularly popular devices such as the Fitbit and Apple Watch, has also made significant strides in health monitoring. For example, in late 2018, the series 4 Apple Watch debuted with an FDA-approved built-in electrocardiogram. Experts predict that future models of the Apple Watch will include integrated advanced sleep tracking functions.11
Developing Wearable Technology to Monitor Health
In addition to these popular wearable activity and sleep tracking devices, other types of wearable technology are also under development. Smart clothing, with built-in biometric sensors, can collect biometric data of the wearer and transmit that data to a computer server for analysis. Potential uses are limitless, and there could be a mass appeal in the private sector, professional sports, health care, the military, and law enforcement. Research conducted at UC Berkley predicted that the global market for smart clothing would be $2.2 trillion in 2019, compared to $520 billion for smartphones, demonstrating the massive consumer market and public adaptability of such technology.12 With profit comes capital to invest in further advances.
An example of one such advancement was demonstrated when a researcher was able to embroider circuits into fabric with 0.1 mm precision, which will allow the integration of sensors and computer memory directly into the material.13 A team of researchers at North Carolina State University has created iron-on electronics for garments. These electronics can monitor heart rate and other biometric data and wirelessly transfer that information to a smartphone or other computer.14
Beyond wearable devices and smart clothing lies one last frontier—direct biological integration of smart technology. The science-fiction fantasy of human-cyborgs is coming off the silver screen and into reality. For example, a woman recently had her Tesla Model 3’s key surgically implanted into her wrist. Since the vehicle is unlocked and started via a radio frequency identification (RFID) key, she can now wave her arm near the car to gain access to her vehicle.15 RFID chips are versatile and could be used for multiple applications. In the future, could RFIDs be programmed to collect and transmit biometric data? Alternatively, a brain surgeon in St. Louis wants to implant computer components into the human brain. His research pertains to implanting computer chips into the brains of patients with intractable epilepsy to help prevent seizures.16
Fatigue is a serious problem facing police officers.
Advancing these concepts are visionary tech geniuses like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, who aim to create devices that allow for “mind-machine melds.”17 In the future, direct implants may report a host of data and allow for a direct neural connection to the Internet of Things, where a variety of devices, from simple sensors to smartphones and wearables, are connected via automated systems to gather information, analyze it, and act upon it.18
The benefits of using such technology does not come without obstacles. Several significant concerns could prevent successful acceptance and implementation. These challenges include (1) privacy, (2) vulnerability of the technology, and (3) education. Regarding privacy, an important question to address is concerning implementation. Who will wear the devices, who will have access to the data, and how will that data be used? Employees may have reservations about their employers collecting and analyzing their biometric data. For example, in a panel discussion about wearable technology at the Walnut Creek, California, Police Department, Detective William Jeha asked, “How will you keep the data private? What if someone hacks into the suit and is able to get my personal health data?” Likewise, in addition to concerns about security, Sergeant Andrew Brown expressed concerns that the data could be used by the city to prevent an officer’s promotion or, worse, terminate an officer based on a health condition.19 However, would employees be more likely to accept the use of this technology, knowing that it would be used to improve their working conditions and overall wellness? In many ways, implementation of such a program would face similar challenges to those faced when police departments across the United States incorporated body-worn cameras into their police forces. While initially met with reservation and concern, the devices are now widely used and accepted by police officers.
Vulnerability is another area of significant concern when it comes to implementing new technologies in policing. In today’s modern computer age, server security and protection from malware and ransomware keep police administrators and IT managers up at night. For example, in July 2019, hackers successfully accessed a Los Angeles, California, computer server, exposing the data of thousands of police officers.20 This risk is not just a problem in large cities. In November 2019, the City of Brea was hit with a ransomware attack that took all servers offline for three weeks. City officials were able to restore the servers without paying the ransom due to robust security measures and proactive server backups. Undoubtedly, these types of cyberattacks will remain a threat to municipal governments and police departments. Therefore, appropriate storage and security of personal health data are imperative.
Last, education of key stakeholders to facilitate acceptance and adherence will be a necessary component of a successful fatigue mitigation program. One key partner is the court system. Especially in today’s overburdened courtrooms, the pressure is on all those in the court system to get proceedings into the courtroom and completed without much regard for those key players who are needed as witnesses. Often, police officers are at the beck and call of the courts, and little consideration is given to them by their counterparts in the district attorney’s office, defense attorneys, or the judges who oversee the proceedings. The courts need to take into consideration police officers’ work schedules when subpoenaing them for court. The days of calling a night shift officer into court at 9 a.m. after he or she worked the previous night, only to stand in a hallway until after lunch, and then be dismissed by the court without even having had to testify must come to an end. The same scheduling restrictions applied by the police department to their officers should also extend to the courts. Innovative ideas such as a return of night court for night shift officers and online web-based hearings may offer alternative solutions and adhere to the goals of fatigue mitigation.
To overcome obstacles and seize emerging opportunities, law enforcement should partner with local universities and biotech companies to test different wearable health monitoring technologies to determine which will most reliably provide the necessary data to combat fatigue. Once baseline data are collected, law enforcement agencies should develop uniform policies to address officer fatigue. As common with any new program, a robust education component should be developed in conjunction with the guidelines. Education should be directed at critical stakeholders, including police department command staff, the police officer end-user, representative labor groups, the courts, privacy advocates, the legislature, and the public. Respective buy-in from each of these groups would facilitate acceptance and implementation.
Conclusion
Fatigue is a serious problem facing police officers. It has significant impacts on the health and wellness of police officers and potentially profound impacts on the communities these police officers serve. There is substantial research available that has studied the detrimental physiological and cognitive impacts of fatigue on the police. Research has concluded that proper sleep hygiene and education will positively impact officer health and capabilities. In law enforcement, police officer wellness has become a popular subject. However, officer wellness usually pertains to physical fitness and psychological wellbeing, not fatigue.
By including fatigue mitigation into police officer wellness programs, these programs will become more well-rounded. Fatigue mitigation consists of many facets, including proper sleep hygiene and the education of police officers, managers, and key partners (such as the courts). Incorporating wearable health monitoring technology to measure fatigue and robust scheduling guidelines to enforce critical provisions are additional steps to ensure that officers in the field are rested and will make the best possible decisions in a crisis. The net impact will lead to happier and healthier police officers poised with the physical and mental capacities to perform at high levels in ever-changing and stressful situations.
Notes:
1American Academy of Sleep Medicine, Circadian Rythan Sleep Disorders (factsheet), 2009.
2A.M. Williamson and Anne-Marie Feyer, ”Moderate Sleep Deprivation Produces Impairments in Cognitive and Motor Performance Equivalent to Legally Prescribed Levels of Alcohol Intoxication,” Occupational and Environmental Medicine 57, no. 10 (October 2000): 649–655.
3Shantha M. W. Rajaratnam et al., “Sleep Disorders, Health, and Safety in Police Officers,” JAMA 306, no. 23 (December 2011): 2567–2578.
4Penelope Allison et al., “Working Hours and Fatigue in the Public Safety Sector,” (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, May 2019).
5Bryan J. Vila et al., Evaluating the Effects of Fatigue on Police Patrol Officers: Final Report (Police Executive Research Forum, 2000).
6John Campanella, “Police Fatigue Part 2: How Fatigue Impacts Performance,” InTime Blog, September 11, 2018.
7David M. Blake and Edward Cumella, “Factoring Fatigue into Police Deadly Force Encounters: Decision-Making and Reaction Time” Law Enforcement Executive Forum 15, no. 1 (2015): 44–65.
8Zusha Elinson and Dan Frosch, “Cost of Police-Misconduct Cases Soars in Big U.S. Cities,” Wall-Street Journal, July 15, 2015.
9Lucas Manfield, “Guyger’s Defense Will Call a Renowned Fatigue Expert: What to Expect,” Dallas Observer, September 27, 2019.
10Colin Wood, “Police App Encourages Officers to Fight Fatigue,” Government Technology, March 5, 2014.
11Scott Stein, “Apple Watch 5: Rumors, Price, Fitness Features, Battery and More,” CNET, August 18, 2019.
12Alex Hanuska et al., Smart Clothing Market Analysis (Sutardja Canter for Entrenuership & Technology, UC Berkley.)
13Ohio State University, “Computers in your Clothes? A Milestone for Wearable Electronics,” news release, April 13, 2016.
14Katherine Gammon, “Health-Sensing Clothes May Save Lives of Infants, First Responders,” NBC News, June 6, 2017.
15Kyle Hyatt, “This Woman Implanted Her Tesla Model 3’s Valet Key into Her Arm,” CNET, August 14, 2019.
16Adam Piore, “The Surgeon Who Wants to Connect You to the Internet with a Brain Implant,” MIT Technology Review, November 30, 2017.
17Priore, “The Surgeon Who Wants to Connect You to the Internet with a Brain Implant.”
18Matt Burgess, “What Is the Internet of Things? WIRED Explains,” WIRED Magazine, February 16, 2018.
19Thomas B. Cashion, “Life-Saving Suits for Law Enforcement: Looking Ahead at Wearable Technology,” Police Chief Online, June 27, 2018.
20Zac Doffman, “Cyberattack on LAPD Confirmed: Data Breach Impacts Thousands of Officers,” Forbes, July 30, 2019.
Please cite as
Adam Hawley, “Asleep on the Job? Not on My (Smart) Watch!” Police Chief Online, October 21, 2020.
