Full version - shortened article published by the German Society for Time Policy, Zeitpolitisches Magazin No. 36 July 2020 (ISSN 2196-0356, download here).
"We stand up for people's safety and provide help around the clock."1Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior, Leitbild der Bayer. Polizei - Handlungs- und Orientierungsrahmen für die Zukunft, https://www.polizei.bayern.de/wir/leitbild/index.html/3249, accessed on 01.03.2020
This quote from the mission statement of the Bavarian Police undoubtedly applies to all police authorities - they guarantee security in a society around the clock. Although the work is 24/7224/7 stands for 24 hours, 7 days a week, i.e. the provision of work every day at any time. This is not a unique feature of police work, as around one in six employees in Germany works shifts (Radtke 2020), but it is characteristic of police work. In order to understand the (time) organization of police work and its impact on public safety, it is also necessary to understand the effects that shift work, which is necessary to ensure the constant availability of the police, has on people. Even if some police working time organizers do not seem to take this into account, police officers are also human beings and the organization of shift work has a significant influence on their ability to perform and act and thus directly on (in)security in public spaces.
Continue reading „Arbeitsorganisation bei der Polizei und ihre Wirkungen auf (Un)Sicherheit im öffentlichen Raum“