PARMA, Ohio -- After taking the temperature of not only his officers but other Northeast Ohio departments, Police Chief Joseph M. Bobak has decided the time is right to restructure his staff’s daily schedule from three eight-hour shifts to two 12-hour shifts.
“This is coming from me; however, there had been officers in the past asking about any chance of us going to 12-hour shifts,” Bobak said.
“This is trending with other police departments, so we had the benefit of looking at them and figuring out the pros and cons to see what was best. So we were able to do our homework on that.
“This seemed like a great time to move forward. Our officers are excited. I can see a definite morale bump for the officers as well.”
In addition to City Council expected to soon approve the change, the police union will also have to give the green light for the contractual change involving Parma’s 112 officers.
“The officers will be working 36 hours one week and then 44 hours the next week, so we had to change some language in the contract, since when working over 40 hours in a week you get paid overtime,” Bobak said. “So we had to do some adjustments. It’s not a big deal.”
Internally speaking, Bobak said the change to 12-hour shifts benefits the police department. The chief is specifically eyeing an additional staff lieutenant providing administrative duties.
“I currently have a lieutenant in charge of each (of) three traditional eight-hour shifts, but going to 12-hour shifts, I’m going to have two shifts, freeing up another for me to use as a staff lieutenant at no cost to the city,” Bobak said.
“That’s a huge benefit to us operationally within the police department.”
The other advantage to the change involves training, which the department currently provides officers throughout the year.
The shift-hour change will allow the chief to move away from a piecemeal approach to a more formal weeklong program that includes the state-required 24 training hours annually, as well as firearms training, self-defense training and legal updates.
Currently, officers are in the process of selecting their 12-hour shifts for 2022, with Bobak saying he expects the new hours to start Dec. 31.
“I appreciate the chief and his command staff leadership for being proactive at no additional cost to the city,” Mayor Tim DeGeeter said. “I think it’s a great benefit for both our residents, who the police serve and protect, and also is good for the department itself.”
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