Developing, Implementing, and Evaluating a Police Fatigue Risk-Management Strategy for the Seattle Police Department

The applicant proposes a multi-phased, mixed methods study involving 1,500 officers within the Seattle Police Department (SPD) to examine the adverse, cumulative health effects of police work schedules and to develop and implement a strategy to mitigate those effects. To accomplish this, the applicant proposes a four- phased approach.

During Phase 1, the applicant will develop a baseline assessment of the cumulative effects of work schedules, overtime, secondary employment, and sleep loss on SPD officer health, safety, quality of life, and performance. This will be done using physiological, psychological, and operational approaches measured over a six month period.

During Phase 2, the applicant will develop a fatigue risk-management strategy, informed by the data collected during Phase 1. During Phase 3, the risk- management strategy will be implemented in the SPD employing an RCT design. Phase 4 will involve data collection following the six-month intervention implementation to assess the impact of the risk-management strategy on officer health, safety, performance, and quality of life. Post-intervention data collection will consist of the same physiological, psychological, and operational data collected at baseline.

The RCT implementation design will allow the applicant to compare data collected pre- and post-intervention, and between treatment and control groups to determine strategy effectiveness. Importantly, this approach will also allow the applicant to compare strategy effectiveness based on shift schedule and cumulative work hours (including overtime and secondary employment hours).

"Note: This project contains a research and/or development component, as defined in applicable law," and complies with Part 200 Uniform Requirements - 2 CFR 200.210(a)(14). CA/NCF