THUNDER BAY -- The 12-hour shift schedule for city police officers is here to stay, for at least one more year.
That was confirmed Tuesday by Thunder Bay Police Service chief J.P. Levesque, who said the pilot program agreement will be extended for another 12 months, pending ratification by the police services board.
This year served as a pilot project for the shift model, with both the force as well as association representing officers having the option to go back to 10-hour shifts after the one year.
“I wanted to try another one year trial. We liked what we saw in the numbers so far but we don’t know if that’s long enough period to predict if it should be a long-term focus for this department,” Levesque told local media after the monthly police services board meeting.
The police association recently ratified the agreement, giving their go-ahead to keep working with the longer days.
Deputy chief Andy Hay said the switch was a big adjustment for not only the officers but the department as a whole, and that there is still refining needed before there can be any talk of it being the definitive future schedule.
“We understand there are still more issues to be resolved, some more efficiencies to be found and a lot things to be ironed out before both sides are agreeable it should be a permanent contractual shift,” Hay said.
He identified overtime hours, court time and holiday time as the specific aspects that need to be addressed.
The switch was originally proposed as a way to increase the efficiency of personnel costs, specifically as a measure to try to offset overtime accrued by officers.
Previously, leftover service calls from the day shift would have to be addressed by the night shift and officers would spend their entire time catching up.
It also allows the number of officers to be more evenly distributed, as before there was a higher ratio of uniforms scheduled at night.
More than 100 uniformed officers, along with nearly 40 communications officers and close to 20 records officers are affected by the switch.
