Developing, Implementing, and Evaluating a Police Fatigue Risk-Management Strategy for the Seattle Police Department, Washington, 2020-2023 (ICPSR 39029)

Version Date: Jul 10, 2025

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Principal Investigator(s):
Lois James, Washington State University-Spokane

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR39029.v1

Version V1

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Summary

The goal of the project was to improve police officers' sleep, health, safety, and wellness, thus improving the quality of police services. Using a multi-phase, mixed method approach, the core objectives included:

  1. Measure the effects of work schedules and sleep loss on Seattle Police Department (SPD) officer health, wellness, safety, and quality of life.

  2. Develop a fatigue risk management strategy, informed by the data collected during objective one.

  3. Using a randomized control trial design, implement the resulting fatigue risk management strategy across the SPD, which is a large municipal police department (approximately 1,500 sworn officers)

  4. Measure the effectiveness of the fatigue risk management strategy.

The main research questions the study sought to address were as follows:

  1. What are the effects of shift work, work hours, sleep loss, and fatigue on police officers' safety, health, and quality of life?

  2. Can a fatigue risk management strategy influence these effects?

Variables include measures of officers' sleep patterns and sleep quality, physical and mental health metrics, descriptions of the officers' role at the SPD, and demographic variables including age, gender, and race/ethnicity.

Citation

James, Lois. Developing, Implementing, and Evaluating a Police Fatigue Risk-Management Strategy for the Seattle Police Department, Washington, 2020-2023. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2025-07-10. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR39029.v1

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Funding

United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice (2019-R2-CX-0022)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Restrictions

Access to these data is restricted. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete a Restricted Data Use Agreement, specify the reason for the request, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research.

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

2020 -- 2023
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Study Design

The baseline data collection consisted of two analyses geared towards measuring officers' sleep, health, safety, wellness, and quality of life. First, wrist actigraphy was used to provide measures of sleep quantity and quality. Actigraphs measure activity in the form of activity counts and subsequently use an algorithm to score sleep and wake. They provided measures of quantity (estimated using activity levels minute-by-minute epochs throughout the 24-hour cycle) and sleep quality (efficiency or fragmentation of sleep). Second, Seattle Police Department (SPD) employees were surveyed using a battery of instruments designed to assess multiple aspects of sleep, health, and quality of life.

After reviewing the baseline data, a fatigue risk management strategy was developed. The resulting training was an eight-week course covering risks involved with fatigue, sleep restriction and shift work, the science of sleep, nutrition and exercise tips, stress management techniques, principles of sleep hygiene, and fatigue countermeasures. SPD officers were randomly assigned to either the treatment group which received the training, or a wait-listed control group. Wait-listed control officers were provided with the same training at the completion of the study period. Random assignment of officers was done so that officers of varying shift schedules, with differing cumulative work hours, were represented in each group.

Then the researchers sought to measure strategy effectiveness. The researchers conducted post-intervention data collection, using the same measures collected at baseline. Differences in officer sleep, health, wellness, and quality of life between treatment and control groups and before and after the training were analyzed using multi-level mixed models.

Sample

At the time of baseline testing, the service had approximately 1,950 employees, all of whom were surveyed. No exclusion criteria were specified.

Time Method

Cross-sectional

Universe

Police officers in Seattle, Washington.

Unit(s) of Observation

Individual

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Response Rates

Phase 1 began in the fall of 2020. The SPD had approximately 1,950 employees at the time of baseline testing, all of whom were surveyed. A total of 419 responded, with 319 filling in the survey questions completely, for a response rate of 21 percent with 16 percent providing complete responses.

Presence of Common Scales

The following instruments were used during the survey portion of the baseline analysis: the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index - PSQI (Buysse, 1989), the Epworth Sleepiness Scale - ESS (Johns, 1994), the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 - PCL-5 (Weathers et al, 2013), the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 - PHQ-9 (Kroenke and Spitzer, 2002), the General Anxiety Disorder-7 - GAD-7 (Spitzer et al., 2006), and the World Health Organization Quality of Life - WHOQOL (Bonomi et al, 2000).

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Original Release Date

2025-07-10

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Notes

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

  • One or more files in this data collection have special restrictions. Restricted data files are not available for direct download from the website; click on the Restricted Data button to learn more.