Use to happen all the time during my time in the big smoke before I transferred out. The drying room in GN had a mattress that looked like it had been there for some time. Sometimes I was forced into sleeping at the nick due to few hours between shifts and others because I was a money grabber back then. 30 mins sleep on the floor outside my locker just to earn double bubble was my record. Luckily the skipper did the same and so we took turns sleeping in the back of carrier with the PSU kits during the day. Looking back it was good times but now, a bit older and wiser I would never do it. Health implications don't bare thinking about.

Use to happen all the time during my time in the big smoke before I transferred out. The drying room in GN had a mattress that looked like it had been there for some time. Sometimes I was forced into sleeping at the nick due to few hours between shifts and others because I was a money grabber back then. 30 mins sleep on the floor outside my locker just to earn double bubble was my record. Luckily the skipper did the same and so we took turns sleeping in the back of carrier with the PSU kits during the day. Looking back it was good times but now, a bit older and wiser I would never do it. Health implications don't bare thinking about.

Typical response one would expect from Eastaught, he would never admit that it was happening, he should take off his 'rose coloured glasses' and come into the real world. It's easy to deny these things when you are a 'chair polisher' and work 9-5 every day.

Still happens all the time in the Met whether you are uniform or CID. Officers work into the early hours and then drive home and are expected back in at the usual start time having had a couple of hours sleep. Very dangerous practice that has always been ignored by senior officers as the job is getting done.

Perhaps the MPS should reverse its relaxation of the rules allowing officers to live beyond 25 miles from Charing Cross and halt the sale of section houses plus other police accomodation? I retired a long time ago but I recall that lack of sleep is nothing new. During long term anti-terrorist surveillance operations my colleagues and I often worked 20hr days and slept for 4hrs on office chairs. In uniform, we had the dreaded 'quick changeovers' and I remember coming off nights at 6am, going to court with an overnight arrest at 9am, then after lunch parading at 1.45pm for the 2-10 late turn!

This is absolutely true that officers are sleeping in locker rooms and it is not just down to the Olympics. Officers on late turn are taking late calls due to no shift overlap and missing their last trains home. This also incurs unnecessary overtime payments in times of austerity. I hear the old sweats bleating on about the 25 mile rule and quick changeovers but most don't live long after they retire. Not good value for money for all of their pension contributions. Unfortunately the Met has basically ignored the fact that it actively recruited officers from other forces five or six years ago to nullify the cost of training new recruits and has hung them out to dry. The bosses are well aware of the practice of officers sleeping at the nick as the threatening emails have already been received so for them to deny this is occurring is a disgrace and shows their total ignorance and disdain towards their officers welfare.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought police regulations stated that there should be at least 11(eleven)hours between shifts, this was to stop'quick' change overs, unless it was with the agreement of the officer.

My new force enforces the 11 hour rule but when I was in the Met I only ever heard one officer say she wouldn't be back in for eleven hours. When I mention about officers sleeping at the nick in the Met to my colleagues now they think it's an alien concept, never done it. When the quick changeovers ended the most common cause for sleeping at the nick was because of aid up town. It is a different culture in the Met. saying all that, now that I'm in my thirties, married with children and fitness tests & Windsor on the horizon there is no way i would sleep at the nick. health is too important.

@Maverick22 Maverick you are indeed right. However as has been the case with my other half. She has worked from 0800 - 0200(supposed to finish at 1600) then back to work at 0800 other wise she would have to do a 1300 - 2200 the following day. The end result is knackered officers. Sadly few supervisors of any rank care as long as the 'Detected's' are coming in and there is a bum on a seat !! One should of course spare a thought for our beloved politicians who when caught having to work late manage to struggle their way to the nearest 5 Star Hotel for a late Lobster Supper an agreeable Montrachet and comfy bed !! On expenses of course !!

omg this is disgusting. stop sleeping on the floors the 11 hr rule is there and supervision should not be ignoring it. i would never do it im not a dog and dont expect to be treated like one. i love my job but my health and family are always first. i accept we are in a unique job and i give it my all at all times. im determined not to be a cop that dies as soon as i retire. this year has been my worst year in the job and i am currently looking for other employment the goverment dont care about us and windsor is destroying the service. WHY STAY?

A lot of talk about the eleven hour rule here, but the story concerns an officer on 12 hour shifts. According to my maths that gives him 12 hours off. If he can't get home and back in 12 hours he should live closer to work. When I was alive we worked a continental shift pattern of 3 x 10pm to 6am nights followed by 2 x 2pm to 10pm lates and then 2 x 6am to 2pm earlier. That meant two quick changeovers a week with only 8 hours between. It isn't that bad. Unemployment is much worse.

A lot of talk about the eleven hour rule here, but the story concerns an officer on 12 hour shifts. According to my maths that gives him 12 hours off. If he can't get home and back in 12 hours he should live closer to work. When I was alive we worked a continental shift pattern of 3 x 10pm to 6am nights followed by 2 x 2pm to 10pm lates and then 2 x 6am to 2pm earlier. That meant two quick changeovers a week with only 8 hours between. It isn't that bad. Unemployment is much worse.

Isn't it just typical that Government is trying to cut down on Police numbers while expecting the Police to do more and more jobs with less and less personnel? My old force (I refuse to call it a "service"!) used to work the old 4-watch system of 7 x 8-hour days (0800-1600), 2 days off, 7 8-hour lates (1600-2400), 2 off, 7 8-hour nights (2400-0800), 3 off, but, in an attempt to cut down on sick leave, one division (mine, thank God!) worked a trial 5-watch period of 5 x 10-hour days (0700-1700), 2 days off, 5 x 10-hour lates (which could be varied from 1200-2200 right through to 1600-0200, depending on what was happening where), 4 off, and 5 x 8.5 hour nights (2300-0730), 4 off. Personally I'd have gone for 5 on 2 off 5 on 3 off 5 on 5 off, or even 5-2-5-2-5-6 as the poor old body needs the maximum recuperation time after Nights, but, while that system did require more personnel, there was an instant benefit in the number of officers available during shift overlaps, and the sickness rate dropped by almost 80%. The rest of the force couldn't WAIT to get on to that system, so what did the 9-5 chair-polishing section do? Scrapped it! That system only had one problem: it was devised by a PC, and not one of the Top Brass!

both of my sons sleep at the station because their last train leaves just after a L/T shift. If they are in with 'bodies' they can't get home.

@Anonymous SMT will ignore the 11 hour rule and a lot of other regulations because there are few cops around nowadays with the backbone to challenge malpractice.

@Anonymous "WHY STAY?" Why indeed. The entire service is going under. Get yourself another job pronto before the flood gates open. I did. Started my new life yesterday and I feel like I've been re-born. Employers will snatch your hands off to have you working for them with all your experience. I feel as if I have saved my own life. Why stay in a service that doesn't deserve you, only to retire with your "gold plated" pension and immediately drop dead due to all the stress you've endured on behalf of "the community"?

A man management, welfare, and morale issue that should have been sorted out long ago. If you haven't got the Staff to cover events such as public order events in addition to the regular commitment, then you cannot cover them. Perhaps that Twit who suggested computers could better investigate crime should put his genious to developing Officers out of thin air to cover these events which have been a part of the scene since the early 1800s.

Most Cdr aren't bright enough to recognize anything. Typical trite reply one would expect.