Evaluating the Effects of Fatigue on Police Patrol Officers in Lowell, Massachusetts, Polk County, Florida, Portland, Oregon, and Arlington County, Virginia, 1997-1998
Description
This study was undertaken to assess the connections between
administratively controllable sources of fatigue among police patrol
officers and problems such as diminished performance, accidents, and
illness. The study sought to answer: (1) What is the prevalence of
officer fatigue, and what are officers' attitudes toward it? (2) What
are the causes or correlates of officer fatigue? (3) How does fatigue
affect officer safety, health, and job performance? and (4) Can
officer fatigue be measured objectively? The final sample was
comprised of all sworn, nonsupervisory police officers assigned
full-time to patrol and/or community policing functions on the day
that data collection began at each of four selected sites: Lowell,
Massachusetts, Polk County, Florida, Portland, Oregon, and Arlington
County, Virginia. Part 1, Fatigue Survey Data, includes demographic
data and officers' responses from the initial self-report
survey. Variables include the extent to which the respondent felt hot
or cold, experienced uncomfortable breathing, bad dreams, or pain
while sleeping, the time the respondent usually went to bed, number of
hours slept each night, quality of sleep, whether medicine was taken
as a sleep aid, estimated hours worked in a one-, two-, seven-, and
thirty-day period, how overtime affected income, family relationships,
and social activities, and reasons for feeling tired. Part 2,
Demographic and Fatigue Survey Data, is comprised of data obtained
from administrative records and demographic data forms. Several
measures from the initial self-report survey are also included in Part
2. Variables focus on respondents' age, sex, race, marital status,
global score on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index scale, total years
as a police officer assigned to any agency and current agency, and
total years worked in current shift. Data for Part 3, FIT and
Administrative Data, were obtained from administrative records and
from the fitness-for-duty (FIT) workplace screener test. Variables
include a pupilometry index score and the dates, time, and particular
shift (days, evenings, or midnight) the officer started working when
the pupilometry test was administered. Part 3 also includes the number
of hours worked by the officer in a regular shift or in association
with overtime, the number of sick leave hours taken by the officer,
and whether the officer was involved in an on-duty accident, injured
on duty, or commended by his/her department during a particular
shift.