Teletype: Detroit patrol officers going to 12-hour shifts - Boston News, Weather, Sports | FOX 25 | MyFoxBoston

Teletype: Detroit patrol officers going to 12-hour shifts

Fox 2 has obtained official, internal DPD documents detailing new changes coming to patrol officers starting August 20 and how many officers will be on shifts at a time.

In black and white the writing is clear.  Patrol officers for the Detroit Police Department who put their lives on the line every day will now be in the line of duty a little longer every time they clock in.

An internal teletype from DPD shows all police officers assigned to patrol will now be assigned twelve-hour shifts starting Monday, August 20.

"I need to get more police officers on the street, more boots on the ground.  Obviously we're not going to get more police officers, so we have to reconfigure what we do," Chief Ralph Godbee said.

The changes affect the Central, Northeastern and Eastern districts and the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th and 12th precincts.  The new schedules will also affect the Gaming and Communications departments, and more units could be added at a later date.

The officers will be broken into two groups with new 84 hour schedules from August 20 to April 14, 2013.  The groups will alternate between two days on and two days off with Friday, Saturday and Sunday off every other week on a day, afternoon or midnight shift.

The teletype operates on 140 patrol officers on the streets on a given day with heavier staffing at night.  39 extra officers will be clocking in for a midnight shift overlapping with officers working 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

There are also changes to police overtime effective immediately.  Overtime will now only be paid after 80 hours in a two week period.