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406 Patrol Staffing Requirements (Issued 02-28-2008)FRIDLEY POLICE DATE OF ISSUE NUMBER: GENERAL ORDER February 28, 2008 406 SUBJECT: REVISION DATE SECTION: Patrol Staffing Requirements February 28, 2008 Green I. PURPOSE To formulate department policy and prescribe specific procedures to adequately staff the shifts of the Field Operations (Patrol) Division. II. POLICY A sufficient number of on duty patrol officers is essential to respond to calls for service and provide public protection. In addition, since personnel is the most costly single item in the police budget, it is important to use that resource wisely. III. PROCEDURE Sworn officers of the Field Operations Division are assigned to a patrol team. Patrol teams work one of the primary shifts during a patrol schedule rotation: Primary Shifts Hours A (day) shift 0700 to 1900 hours P (power) shift 1100 to 2300 hours and 1500 to 0300 hours B (night) shift 1900 to 0700 hours A. Minimum Shift Staffing Requirements Below are listed the minimum shift staffing requirements. These minimums do not reflect the optimum or even desirable level of operation. Functions such as traffic assignments, stake outs, events, in-depth investigations, intelligence gathering and other special assignments generally cannot be achieved when shift staffing is at minimum level. Minimum shift staffing requirements may be adjusted by the Division Captain as necessary to accommodate department operations. Leave requests should not be considered automatically subject to approval even if minimum shift staffing requirements appear to be met. Patrol supervisors are responsible to evaluate service needs on a day by day basis. The minimum shift staffing per time period is as follows: Times Officers Needed 0700-1100 3 officers 1100-1500 3 officers 1500-1900 4 officers 1900-2300 5 officers 2300-0300 3 officers (Sunday-Thursday) 5 officers (Friday-Saturday) 0300-0700 3 officers B. Patrol Supervisors and Minimum Shift Staffing Requirements Because the A shift and B shift patrol supervisors both overlap the P shift, patrol supervisors assigned to P shift teams are usually permitted to count toward minimum shift staffing requirements. 1. When a P shift patrol supervisor that is part of minimum shift staffing takes leave, the A shift and/or B shift patrol supervisor will count toward minimum shift staffing in place of the P shift patrol supervisor. 2. When the P shift patrol supervisor has not become a part of minimum shift staffing and the A shift and/or B shift patrol supervisor takes leave, the P shift patrol supervisor may no longer count toward minimum shift staffing. 3. When the P shift patrol supervisor has become a part of minimum shift staffing and the A shift and/or B shift patrol supervisor takes leave, the P shift patrol supervisor will continue to count toward minimum shift staffing. 4. A shift and B shift patrol supervisors may count towards minimum shift staffing between 0300-1100 hours as necessary. In no other circumstance except as described in B.1. above may the A shift or B shift patrol supervisor count towards minimum shift staffing. C. Shift Shortages Whenever a patrol supervisor determines that a shift is below or about to be below the minimum shift staffing requirement, the supervisor shall take steps to insure that an adequate number of officers are present to work the shift. If there is not enough time to call someone in to work the shift, the supervisor should hold over an officer from the previous shift only long enough for the supervisor to get another officer who has had an adequate amount of rest to report to work the remainder of the shift shortage. Supervisors shall take necessary steps to avoid working any officer more than 14 continuous hours. Whenever a supervisor holds over an officer or calls an officer in to work, he/she shall do so according to the rules of the union contract. D. Shift Trading Shift trading allows officers to take leave when they would normally be unable to do so due to minimum shift staffing requirements. Shift trading also allows officers to alter their assigned work schedule to better accommodate their private schedules. Officers may trade days, weeks or entire shift rotation periods. Officers who are interested in trading their shift for another officer's shift will be responsible for arranging the trade with the other officer and filling out the required form. The following are restrictions on shift trading: 1. Shift trades will not be allowed if leave will accommodate the need for time off. 2. No shift trades will be considered for less than four hours of a shift. 3. The supervisors of all teams involved in the shift trade must agree to the trade. 4. If the team supervisor is unavailable, the division Captain may review the trade request. 5. In case of short notice any other supervisor may approve a shift trade as long as all the other conditions are met. E. Holiday Time Because the patrol work schedule does not account for holidays worked or holiday time earned, it will be necessary for each officer to ensure they use their earned holiday leave time prior to the end of the year. Officers may have an option to cash out no more than 24 hours of accumulated holiday leave at the end of each year as determined by the personnel rules of the city. F. Modified Time Since the 12 hour shift schedule needs to be modified to arrive at a 40 hour average work week, the following process is established: Depending on each officer's schedule and the yearly hourly requirement, officers working a 12 hour shift schedule will need to modify their work schedule to work an eight hour shift instead of a 12 hour shift once each pay period. Officers may elect to bank the 4 hour difference (called “mod time”) and use it like accumulated leave time. Banked mod time must be used within the four month schedule rotation in which it occurs. Requests to use mod time that are submitted on the day the officer desires to use the mod time, will only be granted by a supervisor if call load permits. If the officer is not able to leave due to call load or other circumstance, the request to use mod time off will be considered denied and the officer will not be eligible for overtime compensation. During the last schedule rotation of the year, patrol supervisors will be responsible to see to it that each of their team members work the required hours to reach the yearly hourly requirement. This normally can be done by assigning or denying mod time off. G. Court If a P or B shift officer is required to be at court for an extended time during a day in which he/she is later scheduled to work, the officer will need to contact the patrol supervisor on duty as soon as possible. The supervisor will attempt to make reasonable accommodation if the officer needs to miss their scheduled shift or portion of a shift due to fatigue. H. Sick Time Annual leave and sick time are different even though they come from the same bank of time. Annual leave time is scheduled and approved. Sick time is not planned and in some circumstances will result in another officer having to work overtime unwillingly. Once an officer determines that he/she cannot work his/her scheduled shift because of illness or injury, he/she must contact the on-duty supervisor as soon as possible and inform the supervisor of his/her status. He/she must talk to a supervisor and must tell the supervisor the nature of his/her illness or injury. If for some reason the supervisor cannot be contacted, the officer will need to contact the senior-most officer working and advise them of his/her status. I. Patrol Supervisor Coverage It is the responsibility of the supervisor requesting leave to ascertain the effect their absence will have on supervisor and roll call coverage and to make the necessary arrangements to insure coverage requirements are maintained. 1. There must be a minimum of 12 hours of supervisor coverage within a 24 hour period of time. 2. All shift roll calls must be conducted by a supervisor.