Filling an 11-Post Shift With Six Officers
At 15:00 the 1500-2300 shift requires 11 posts filled: six housing units, control room, rover, sally port, visiting, and recreation yard. Post orders require at least one housing officer per 60 inmates, rounded up, and the control room must be staffed at all times. The facility population is 372. Eight officers were scheduled; one called out sick at 13:10 and a second at 15:40, leaving six on duty. Three officers are on the overtime list. Officer A was off today. Officer B worked 0700-1500 today. Officer C worked 1500-2300 yesterday and 2300-0700 today. Department policy prohibits more than 16 consecutive hours worked and pays overtime at time and a half on a base rate of $38.00 per hour. No recreation is scheduled tonight. The 2300-0700 shift is fully staffed and its officers can be called in early. Your sergeant is off-site at training and reachable by phone.
1. Determine how many posts are unfilled and which overtime-list officers are eligible under the 16-hour rule. Show your arithmetic.
Read the worked answer
Vacancies. Required 11 posts; six officers on duty after the 13:10 and 15:40 call-outs. 11 - 6 = 5 posts unfilled.
Eligibility under the 16-consecutive-hour cap (this shift is 1500-2300, eight hours):
- Officer A - off today, 0 hours worked. Eligible for the full 8 hours; total would be 8.
- Officer B - worked 0700-1500, 8 hours. Eligible for up to 8 more (8 + 8 = 16, which is the cap, not over it). Eligible.
- Officer C - worked 1500-2300 yesterday (8 hours) then 2300-0700 today (8 hours) = 16 consecutive hours already. Ineligible; the policy prohibits more than 16, and C is at the limit with no rest.
Result: two eligible officers from the overtime list, so 5 - 2 = 3 posts still unfilled.
Why the order matters: the cap is calculated on consecutive hours worked, not on hours in the current shift. B is eligible despite already working a full shift; C is not, even though C's last shift ended earlier in the day. Getting that backwards - assuming 'already worked today' disqualifies B, or that C is rested - is the error this calculation is designed to catch. Confirm hours against the timekeeper, not memory, before making calls.
2. Applying the 1:60 housing rule to 372 inmates, what is the minimum number of housing officers, and what does that mean for which posts can be left open tonight?
Read the worked answer
The housing minimum. Post orders require one housing officer per 60 inmates, rounded up. 372 / 60 = 6.2, which rounds up to 7 housing officers.
The trap: there are six housing-unit posts, so it is tempting to say six housing officers covers it. It does not - 6 officers for 372 inmates is 62 per officer, over the 1:60 limit. The seventh must go to housing (a second officer in the largest unit or a dedicated housing rover).
What that leaves. With 8 staff on hand (6 + A + B): 7 in housing + 1 in the control room (staffed at all times) = 8 committed. Sally port, visiting, and the recreation yard have no officer.
What can be left open tonight, and why:
- Recreation yard: the cleanest candidate - no recreation is scheduled, so the post has no function tonight. Closing it costs nothing and takes supervisor sign-off.
- Visiting: depends on the visiting schedule; if visiting hours run past 1500, this post cannot simply be dropped, because the public entrance and movement control go with it.
- Sally port: the highest-risk post to leave open. It is the vehicle and gate control point, and closing it changes facility access - a watch commander decision, not a shift-level one.
Conclusion: the 1:60 rule, not the post list, sets the floor. Housing cannot absorb the shortfall, so any savings must come from the yard and, only with authorization, from visiting.
3. You are three officers short after A and B report. Compute the overtime cost if all three vacancies are filled by calling 2300-shift officers in eight hours early, and state what you do before making any calls.
Read the worked answer
Cost first. Overtime rate = $38.00 x 1.5 = $57.00/hour.
- Officers A and B: 2 x 8 hours x $57.00 = $912.00
- Three 2300-shift officers called in at 1500 instead of 2300: 3 x 8 x $57.00 = $1,368.00
- Total overtime cost: $2,280.00 for 40 overtime hours.
Cap check: an officer called in at 1500 and working through 0700 reaches exactly 16 consecutive hours, which the policy permits (it prohibits more than 16). Anyone already carrying 8 hours from another assignment would exceed the cap and cannot be used.
What to do first - before making any calls:
- Notify the watch commander/sergeant. Post closure and consolidation require authorization above your level; filling three posts with mandatory overtime carries a cost and a fatigue consequence that is not yours alone to accept.
- Propose the least-cost, least-risk option in the same call: close the recreation yard (no recreation scheduled), then cover the remaining shortfall with overtime if the yard closure plus A and B does not fill the posts. Only with authorization should you move to sally port or visiting consolidation.
- Then make the mandatory calls in order, verifying each officer's hours against the timekeeper, and log the time of each call, the response, and the cost.
Documentation: the shift log should show the call-out times, the calculation, who authorized the closures, and which posts were filled by whom. If the shift runs short, that record protects both the facility and you.