Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia is planning to introduce a four-day workweek for officers.
He plans to launch this model in the summer with a pilot program at one police station to test out how well it works. The new schedule will consist of four work days per week with 10-hour shifts.
When speaking with WFAA, Garcia said trying a four-day workweek has been one of the top three things his associates have asked him to do.
“I gotta put my money where my mouth is, and again we have to look — it’s not all about dollars and cents,” he said.
When asked for further information, the police department told The Dallas Express, “The policy is still being reviewed and in planning.”
“There is no further information available at this time,” said Senior Corporal Brian Martinez, a public information officer for the Dallas Police Department.
For comparison, the Keller Police Department has been on a “compressed” work schedule since the early 2000s, when current Keller City Manager Mark Hafner first started as the city’s police chief.
“Our officers work what we consider a compressed schedule because they’re not on a five-day, eight-hour sort of shift to reach their 40-hour work week,” Rachel Reynolds, communication and public engagement manager for the City of Keller, said to The Dallas Express.
However, Reynolds did clarify that “their shift schedule is probably pretty similar to how other departments handle a police shift.”
“They work 12-hour shifts within an 80-hour pay period over two weeks designed to give officers a long weekend off every other weekend,” she continued. “Our [police] department has been on that schedule for about 20 years now (before that, they were on eight-hour shifts).”
While Keller does not have hard data indicating how officers feel about this schedule, Reynolds said that Hafner “recalls that they made the switch back then because the officers wanted a better work/life balance.”
Reynolds added that Keller Fire-Rescue, another public safety department, is also on a compressed schedule — a 48-hour/96-hour rotation with two days on shift and four days off.
