Promoting Wellness in Off-Duty and Overtime
Law enforcement is a demanding profession that requires officers to be at their best, both physically and mentally. While PowerDetails makes it easier for officers to work off-duty jobs and overtime, it does so in a way that prioritizes their health and safety.
Understanding the Challenges
Officers face unique challenges in the line of duty that can significantly impact their health and wellness. These factors can lead to fatigue and burnout and pose a risk for long-term health issues if not properly managed.
Physical demands of the job
Long hours and irregular schedules
High-stress situations and critical incidents
Juggling work-life balance
To prevent officer fatigue, agencies must have the right tools to enforce limits on off-duty/overtime and promote safe policies
Off-duty and overtime jobs scheduled
4M
Off-duty and overtime hours recorded
50M
Off-duty and overtime payments processed
$750M
Public safety personnel using PowerDetails
65K
Auto-enforce Rules & Policy
You set the limits. We make it easier to maintain and enforce them.
The PowerDetails platform utilizes a configurable Rules Engine that dictates who is eligible for certain jobs and who is not. It also makes job distribution fair among officers, protects officers from working too many hours, and protects the agency against liability risks.
The platform was designed to be configurable, which means every PowerDetails site is built to meet each agency’s unique rules and preferences.
Our mission is to help agencies take accountability for their off-duty details and promote officer wellness through solutions that are efficient, accurate, and fair.
How to Promote Safety & Fairness
Implementing a system that facilitates, measures, and corrects off-duty activity may sound complex, but the PowerDetails platform is designed to facilitate your processes from scheduling to billing.
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As your agency receives and approves job requests, PowerDetails will notify all eligible personnel and ensure that opportunities are distributed evenly between personnel, per your agency policies.
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Accreditation groups such as CALEA offer secondary employment guidance in standard 22.2.5 - Extra Duty Employment. Having policies in place prevent officers from working too many hours and mitigates the risk of officer fatigue. It is also common for agencies to receive requests for public records that pertain to Extra-Duty Employment. Incidents during Extra-Duty shifts create the need for historical records.
For this reason, agencies must be able to locate and report the following information:
Location
Dates / Times
Personnel Names
Pay Rates
Hours Worked
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How officers get paid matters a great deal. Best practices suggest that the agency collect payments and pay the officers via Payroll in a separate line item for “Extra Duty.” These payments can be processed electronically, and officers receive 1099s for all wages received.
The system should avoid the following situations:
Cash Payments
Uncollected funds (Tracking Accounts Receivable to make sure each shift gets paid)
Non-Standardized rates where some business might pay more to some officers over others
How to Identify Officer Fatigue
Fatigue can be caused by mental exertion, not just physical activity. And while fatigue is often temporary, it can also develop into unrelenting exhaustion that is not relieved by rest. When fatigue begins to impact an officer’s psychological and emotional well-being, safety becomes a genuine concern.
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In 2018, the Fraternal Order of Police surveyed nearly 8,000 law enforcement officers and found that:
79% of participants have suffered critical stress in the line of duty
69% of participants reported that stressful experiences developed into unresolved/lingering emotional issues
90% of participants believe there is a stigma in law enforcement that prevents officers from seeking mental health treatment
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How can the law enforcement industry take action against fatigue? 73% of the participants in the Fraternal Order of Police survey considered Peer Support as the most helpful form of treatment. In order to make peer support more accessible, there must be cultural changes in Law Enforcement that promote and support officer wellness.
Some ways that agencies can provide better support include:
Talking openly about mental health
Being conscious of language when discussing officer wellness
Educating officers about mental health and how to identify signs of fatigue
Let's talk Details
A member of our team will gladly walk you through the PowerDetails platform and share more information on how you can promote fair and safe off-duty management.