Filling Tuesday's Day Shift
A 120-bed housing unit requires one sergeant and four officers on each of three shifts, 24 hours a day. The facility uses a relief factor of 1.15 to cover vacation, training, and sick leave, and each officer is scheduled for five 8-hour shifts per week. The officer roster currently lists 18 officers. The day shift (06:00-14:00) has six officers assigned to it. On Tuesday, four of those six are unavailable: two called out sick at 04:30, one is on approved vacation, and one is at the academy for training. Overtime policy fills vacancies in this order: (1) volunteers from the current shift who have not worked more than 12 hours in the past 16; (2) volunteers from the off-going shift if they will have at least 8 hours of rest before their next shift; (3) mandatory holdover by inverse seniority; (4) call the shift commander. Two officers from the off-going shift volunteer; one would have only 5 hours of rest before his next shift, the other would have 9 hours.
1. Calculate the number of full-time officers required by the relief factor and the current shortfall. Show your work.
Read the worked answer
Daily officer shifts: 4 officers per shift x 3 shifts = 12 officer-shifts per day. Weekly officer shifts: 12 x 7 = 84. Relief factor: 84 x 1.15 = 96.6, which must be rounded up because a partial shift cannot cover a post: 97 officer-shifts per week. Officers required: 97 / 5 shifts per officer = 19.4, rounded up to 20 officers. Current roster: 18 officers. Shortfall: 20 - 18 = 2 officers.
The relief factor is not a cushion for callouts on the day; it is the average extra capacity needed across the year for leave, training, and sick time. A roster of 18 is two officers below the calculated requirement, so the unit is structurally short even before Tuesday's callouts.
2. For Tuesday's day shift, how many replacements are needed, which off-going volunteer is eligible, and what is the next step if one replacement is still missing?
Read the worked answer
Replacements needed: The day shift has 6 assigned, but only 2 are available (6 - 2 sick - 1 vacation - 1 training = 2). The post requirement is 4 officers. Therefore 4 - 2 = 2 replacements are needed.
Eligible volunteer: The off-going officer with 9 hours of rest meets the 8-hour minimum and can be used. The officer with only 5 hours of rest does not meet the rest rule and should not be used under the stated policy.
If still short: After using the eligible volunteer, one vacancy remains. The next step is mandatory holdover by inverse seniority among eligible officers, following the policy order. Before ordering a holdover, the supervisor should confirm the officer has not exceeded the 12-hours-in-16 limit and will still get required rest. If no eligible officer is available, the shift commander is called. The decision and the reason should be documented.
3. The shift commander says, 'Just run with three officers and skip the fourth post.' Evaluate that instruction.
Read the worked answer
The unit's minimum staffing is four officers, so running with three is a deviation from the posted requirement, not a normal staffing choice. It may be unavoidable in an emergency, but it should be authorized, documented, and risk-assessed. The missing post could be a rover, a control position, or a dayroom observer; dropping it reduces supervision and response capability and increases the chance that a fight, medical emergency, or contraband movement goes unseen. The commander should state which post will be left open, what compensating measures will be used (for example, restricting inmate movement or having the sergeant cover the area), and how long the deviation will last. The officer should record the instruction and the commander's name. If the commander is ordering something that creates an immediate safety risk, the officer should raise the concern through the chain of command and document it.