Columbia police officers start new patrol schedule

The Columbia Police Department has rolled out its new schedule for patrol officers.

In October, the department voted to go from a 12-hour work day, down to a 10-hour day.

Officers began working the 12-hour shifts in 2016. According to a recent survey, lower morale was reported within CPD because of the longer shifts.

Columbia Police Chief Ken Burton said, “This change, if it improves morale, I’m good with it. I’m not sure that we won’t be talking about this again in six months, because it’s going to require to work a little bit harder, so when that time comes, we will sit down with them to see what else we can do to tweak the process.”

Burton told ABC 17 News the the shorter days will require more work, but improving morale makes it worth a try.

“Ten hour shifts by themselves take 15 percent more resources, which there’s no secret that we really don’t have a lot of extra resources. So the officers are going to be working harder. It could actually affect response times for citizens,” said Burton.

The new patrol shift schedule went into effect on Sunday.