Front Line Friday #19: Fatigue and Shift Work

Summary

This editorial discusses how sleep deprivation and rotating shift work severely degrade the cognitive and physical capabilities of law enforcement officers, impacting critical functions like use-of-force decision-making and risk assessment. Research shows that after 17-19 hours of wakefulness, performance can be equivalent to a 0.05% blood alcohol concentration, and officers often underestimate their impairment.