Fatigue is not ‘just part of the job’
(First published on February 13, 2019)
Fresh Air’s Managing Director, Dr Paul Jackson, discusses the results of a recent survey into police officer fatigue and stress…
The Police Federation Demand, Capacity and Welfare Survey (2018) results are published today. This survey of 18,100 serving police officers has highlighted again the high levels of fatigue and stress experienced by police officers in England and Wales. Two years on from the first Demand, Capacity and Welfare Survey the results show that little has changed as far as officer fatigue and stress are concerned - if anything the situation has worsened.
With regard to fatigue:
Over a third of respondents said they obtained less than six hours sleep before their shifts over the previous month (36.1%). Research shows that having slept less than 6 hours is associated with an elevated risk of culpable crash involvement (those who slept less than 6 hours are 1.3 times more likely than drivers who reported 7–9 hours of sleep to have been responsible for the collision);
Nearly two thirds of respondents had found it difficult to carry out certain duties and tasks at work because they had been too fatigued (64.4%), and three quarters reported that fatigue had interfered with their family or social life (75.1%);
Over two thirds (67.8%) agreed with the statement 'Current levels of fatigue amongst my colleagues pose a significant risk to officer safety.'
Two years on from the first Demand, Capacity and Welfare Survey these results show that little has changed as far as officer fatigue and stress are concerned - if anything the situation has worsened.
We know that under-resourced forces means there is a regular requirement for officers to work overtime (31.8% reported having to work overtime due to a shortage of officers on shift), while staff shortages and operational demands mean that cancelled rest days are a common occurrence (66.8% of officers reported having had two or more rest days cancelled in the previous 12-month period), and almost 40% report that they were never or rarely able to take their full designated rest breaks.
The results also suggest that a concerning proportion of officers are affected by stress: 43.9% of respondents reported that their job is very or extremely stressful, and nearly one third (31.9%) of respondents reported taking at least one day of sickness absence in the past 12 months as a result of stress, depression, or anxiety. The effects on actual police performance are less clear, but research in other domains has consistently highlighted that fatigue has a significant impact on many of the cognitive skills essential for safe, effective policing: problem solving, effective decision making, reasoning, judgement, emotional response, communication and risk perception are just some of the many skills that are undermined by fatigue.
For roads police the situation may be especially critical; the survey highlighted fatigue amongst this group as being especially high. With single crewing operations becoming a more frequent occurrence, the increased crash risk associated with fatigue is especially concerning.
I presented some of these results at the recent Police Federation Annual Roads Policing Conference and finished my talk with some recommendations for actions I believe are urgently required if we are to address this situation.
As a first step, I believe there is a need to establish a national policy on fatigue for the Police Service, within the College of Policing Wellbeing framework. This should include a clear commitment from management to address the issue and recognition that fatigue is not 'just part of the job' or unavoidable, but has real consequences for officer wellbeing, the quality of policing provision and ultimately, the service delivered to the public. As such, officer fatigue needs to be managed like any other hazard.
These results should act as a wake-up call - police officer fatigue and stress are at unacceptably high levels, resulting in poor morale, low job satisfaction, increased sickness rates and burn out. We need to take action now before the situation deteriorates any further.
Dr Paul Jackson is Head of Impairment Research at the Transport Research Laboratory. A Chartered Psychologist specialising in human performance and impairment, he specialises in the design and delivery of fatigue risk management systems (FRMS) for safety-critical organisations. He is also an expert witness in cases involving suspected driver fatigue and has developed guidance for police investigators on how to identify and investigate fatigue-related collisions.