PARMA, Ohio — A new ordinance on Parma’s council agenda would switch things up a bit for the city’s officers.
If approved, officers would transition from their current five eight-hour shifts weekly to three 12 hour shifts weekly.
In a statement to News 5, a Parma police spokesperson said:
“Uniform Patrol is currently on 8-hour shifts. The majority of patrol officers wanted to change to 12-hour shifts and the chief has given his authorization for this to happen should they approve it. The patrol officers are still in the process of officially voting on this as initially it was just a survey that was taken to find out if they would be interested or not. There was obviously interest, so now we are still awaiting their vote, as well as approval from city council. By making this change from three shifts to two shifts, it will free up one additional lieutenant to work as a staff lieutenant in Uniform Patrol. Let me know if you have any additional questions.”
"I know the chief did reach out and conducted a survey of the patrol officers and a significant number of them were in support of the shift change," said Parma Public Safety Director Thomas Weinreich.
A study conducted by the National Police Foundation found benefits of 12-hour shifts, the main being most officers worked significantly less overtime.
The study also found officers working 12-hour shifts were a bit more tired.
Parma city leaders told News 5 that the city council still has to vote on the ordinance, and police officers themselves will vote.
Download the News 5 Cleveland app now for more stories from us, plus alerts on major news, the latest weather forecast, traffic information and much more. Download now on your Apple device here, and your Android device here.
You can also catch News 5 Cleveland on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube TV, DIRECTV NOW, Hulu Live and more. We're also on Amazon Alexa devices. Learn more about our streaming options here.
