Field experimental study examines fatigue and cognitive performance in firearms officers, indicating 12-hour shifts may not affect response in confrontations.
Abstract The Police Federation do not recommend 12-hour shifts yet the impact of shift length on cognition, sleepiness, fatigue, and operational effectiveness is largely unknown. A study on the effects of a 12-hour operational shift on armed police officers was conducted with three UK Police Forces. A total of 62 officers were tested from a variety of roles (armed response vehicle crew, specialist firearms officer, and counter terrorism specialist firearms officer). Psychological measures tested levels of fatigue, sleepiness, and working memory, and a training scenario measured operational effectiveness including appropriate use of force at the beginning and end of a shift. Participants showed a significant increase in fatigue, sleepiness, and cognitive performance at the end of the shift. There was no effect on training scenario performance, suggesting that a 12-hour shift does not have an effect on the ability of armed police officers to respond appropriately to a potential armed confrontation.
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Brennan et al. (2025) studied this question.
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