City of Morgan Hill Public Safety Master Plan

TABLE 3-3: 4-10/3-12 Work Plan

Sun

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

10-hour 10-hour

10-hour 10-hour

10-hour 10-hour

10-hour

12-hour 12-hour

12-hour 12-hour

12-hour 12-hour

10-hour (patrol) 12-hour (training) 10-hour (training) 12-hour (patrol) 10-hour

10-hour 10-hour

10-hour 10-hour

10-hour 10-hour

12-hour 12-hour

12-hour 12-hour

12-hour 12-hour

Additional personnel resources would be required to implement this plan. In order to maintain minimum staffing levels under this plan, the MHPD estimates that three additional officers would be needed. Furthermore, there are operational inefficiencies that would be generated when using three 10-hour shifts on the Sunday through Wednesday side of the plan. With three 10-hour shifts each day, there will be six extra hours of patrol coverage. Scheduling these six hours each day leads to inefficiency. CPSM’s experience in this area indicates that when departments utilize a two-hour overlap, as would be one option with the three 10-hour shifts, the two-hour overlap is wasted. Once the subsequent shift appears for duty, the on-duty shift has a tendency to withdraw from patrol and gravitate towards administrative work. This minimizes the added benefit of the overlapped shift. Maximizing the overlap by scheduling the full six hours at the most needed times of the day often results in undesirable start and end times. For example, taking into account the department’s workload figures that we’ve calculated, the most critical six hours of overlap time for the MHPD would be between the hours of 3:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. This would result in shifts beginning at 11:00 a.m., 3:00 p.m., and 1:00 a.m., which are clearly not desirable shift times for the officers. Thus, considering the additional resources needed and the potential loss of efficiency, it is not recommended that the MHPD adopt the 10-hour shift plan. This recommendation applies to the use of the 10-hour shift in any of its manifestations, whether it is implemented on only one side of the week or for the entire schedule. A shift plan needs to first and foremost address the operational needs of the department as presented by workload demands. Based on the workload information as depicted in Figures 3-1 through 3-8, it appears that the MHPD’s 12-hour plan does an adequate job providing the manpower when needed. This is illustrated most noticeably by the saturation index (Figures 3-2, 3-4, 3-6, and 3-8), where the ratio of personnel and workload is presented. These figures illustrate a fairly steady line, which indicates a steady and consistent balance of personnel and workload. With the exception of the early morning hours during winter weekdays when the saturation index drops off sharply (this signifies higher levels of staffing with low levels of work). In addition, the saturation index trend line in these figures is within acceptable bounds. While there

Police Operations and Data Analysis Report, Morgan Hill, California

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