Beware scheduling nightshift police for daytime court cases!
Aussie sleep modelling software has helped flag court case scheduling issues that can affect the quality of police services and undermine justice.
With echoes of Minority Report, researchers at CQUniversity's Appleton Institute in Adelaide provided the software for a pivotal biomathematical study of American police rosters.
Focusing on public complaints against police officers, the study concluded that on-duty fatigue and sleepiness, sleep obtained prior to a shift, and working night shifts were strongly associated with public complaints.
Publishing in the Sleep Research Society journal, authors found that off-duty court appearances reduce sleep between night shifts and further increased the odds of a public complaint.
CQUni Professor Drew Dawson helped contribute to the study with co-authors from Washington State University.
"This research presents the first empirical evidence that sleep loss and schedule disruption caused by mandatory daytime court appearances affect the quality of police services,"
Professor Dawson says.
"We now need extra longitudinal studies to further assess the relationships between work schedules, sleep loss, fatigue and public complaints."
