Police Candidates and Snoozes
Working nights as a police officer can be very difficult. In some divisions it is extremely busy, and the night will fly by, while in some divisions when it gets quiet, there is not a lot to do. During these times you can sometimes come across awkward moments involving other officers.
Scenario:
Sheldon has been working for about a year on the job and gets along very well with his shift. It is the last of seven nights in a row that the entire shift has to work. The preceding six nights had been extremely busy with a large number of calls and a couple of serious incidents that made a lot of officers work a great deal of overtime. Tonight it had been quite quiet, especially after 3:00 am when the officers had finished their lunch breaks. There had been no calls in a couple of hours, and officers had not reported any problems.
At about 4:00 in the morning, the dispatcher tried to contact one of your fellow officers, Graham Stevens, to assign a noise complaint in his area of patrol. There was no response from Graham after several attempts to reach him by radio. The call was assigned to another vehicle, and the dispatcher continued trying to reach officer Stevens. Within a couple of minutes, even the road sergeant was attempting to reach officer Stevens, and requesting all units to begin a search for him. There was an obvious safety concern.
Despite the safety concern, Sheldon was convinced that Graham had found a quiet secluded place, had parked his vehicle and was probably sleeping. Graham was always known as an officer that would do this, but to this day had never been caught doing it. He probably just forgot to raise the volume of his radio. Sheldon even suspected that he knew where Graham was, but it was on the opposite end of the division of where he was.
What would be the best course of action for Sheldon to take? Should he speak to other officers, the sergeant, or try and get to Graham himself? What should he say to whoever he does contact?
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*Officer Safety* comes first!
Graham’s absence has become priority. Any and ALL possible locations KNOWN to Officers should be checked/mentioned; Graham could be in need of help!
Its the matter of Officers safety, and at this moment, the main priority is to check about whereabout of Graham.
If possible, they should also try to contact to Graham on his cell number.
“where’s my radio”… “Can someone in the area of….. check to see if his cruiser is at the corner or such and such street , he usually parks there during the later part of his shift”
What happens after that is his responsibility. If he doesn’t answer the call because he is sleeping and you need your partner to back you up, well you get the picture right? He could also be in need of assistance, call it in.
And who is writing these scenarios?
**Sheldon get’s along very well with his shift?
**Last seven nights in a row that the entire shift has to work?
They are however interesting to read.
Becca, I do. We are always looking for feedback. If you think you have anything constructive to add, please send it to info@policeprep.com.
If so that Sheldon does come in contact with other officers or the sergeant, I think his next course of action to take would be to explain his understanding about Officer Graham in which the possibilty that he may have fallen asleep on site during his shift to cause immediate relief as his dispatch, sergeant and any remaining officers may be worried of his placement. Also still send out a team search for Officer Graham as its possible he could be at risk of danger aswell for Sheldon to carry on his duty while keeping a look out for any other information of regards to Officer Graham.
I agree, Police Safety does come first!
Sheldon must inform the sergeant the possibility that Graham may in fact be sleeping. He must also share any locations he feels should be checked.
Unless Graham is found, there is absolutely to way to know for sure if he is safe.
Sheldon should request to participate with the search efforts and visit any locations he may feel Graham to be.
Once found it depends if Graham was sleeping.If not found asleep Sheldon should ask Graham about what happened as a fellow officer.It would be upto the Sgt.to take any disiplinary action ,if Sheldon has a concern about situation he should stress his concern to the Sgt.
I would imagine that there are two issues here: one is the possibility of compromised safety of a fellow officer, two is fraternal concern that the officer may simply have fallen asleep (being human and prone to human error). Both scenarios on all levels are unnacceptable, but on many levels the latter is also understandable. I would deifinitely let my superiors know my suspicion, but would most likely try to ’soften’ the situation by sayong something like: “He’s had a rough week and may have fallen asleep”. But, as safety is paramount I would suggest someone go look for him (and take him a coffee); if discipline is necessary then that’s the risk taken when napping on the job- safety comes first and should be verified.
First off, before the the situation gets out of hand. Contact the Srg, explain the spots you have seen the officer parking. If you do this before dispatch repeatedly calls for the officer numerous times, then it will take the panic out off the air. I have seen this happen as i work with officers and in most case’s their mic is off or their portable battery went dead and their are not in a car.
If an officer is not responding that ask control for their 20(location) and then swing by, every police car has a gps. so problem solved control will advise his location, and the two closest units will be dispatched to check up on the officer. officers have enough stress on the job, and unless the officer had just rolled up on a B/E and entered the premise and then was unreponsive, control and the acting Srg, will not take every available unit on a goose chase for an officer unless the have a reason to believe he/she is in danger. As i said before I am a municipal law enforcement officer now, and i work will a great bunch of officers, and i have seen this scenario any times.
Firstly, I’m new to this. Having said that, I’d like to add that excessive sleepiness can be an indicator of sleep apnea. People who suffer from this condition have their REM sleep constantly interrupted, and consequently experience uncontrollable tiredness.
If most of the officers - all of whom have been pulling numerous night shifts - are able to cope, and Graham is not, it would be in his best interest to have a sleep study done. This condition is easily dealt with.
But as for Sheldon, there is an ethical issue that he has to deal with. He doesn’t know if his theory about Graham sleeping is correct - he is assuming that he’s snoozing. He should do as Chris suggests above, and he should also join the search, and check the place where he thinks Graham might be sleeping.
I agree with everyone’s overall aproach… more specifically the two identified factors in question as Dom pointed out.
My spouse a TPS veteran was definitely guilty of the above scenario on more than a few occassions. It just so happed that one of his Sergeants called him on it… encouraging my husband to get some help. It ended up being a very servere case of sleep apnea! If it wasn’t for his Sergeant ‘catching’ him that day, who knows where my husband would be today!
Officer’s safety is the highest priority! And having said that, as much as we are fearful of getting in trouble or being confronted with job action of some sort, most police forces do look out for their fellow members and eachother - they have one another’s best interests at heart (well… for the most part anyways!).
It’s always best to be open, honest and communicate concerns. Incidents as the above mentioned are not rare and platoons, troops, or units that function together need to be aware of eachothers strengths and weaknesses to continue to thrive. It’s counterproductive to be secretive. Solutions are developed when a team puts the problem on the table out in the open!