The Longest Shift

[steve354]

I was just wondering what's the longest shift anyone has ever done in their career.

I did 21 hours the other night while I was on stake out. The went shift went from 5PM to 2 PM the next day.

[stormz5192]

16-18 hrs isn't unusual, but my longest was 21 or 22. Quite honestly I zoned out around hour 20.

[kermit315]

I have gone from working my Navy job to pulling a 12 hour shift a few times, so that would put me close to 24. When the hurricanes come through, it is not uncommon to pull shifts that cover days, with cat naps in your car from time to time to recharge.

[Iowa #1603]

Over the years I have worked a number of "long shifts"

We used to do 12 hr hospital watches...............with a 2 hr drive time to the hospital. That was back when I was a rookie and got forced into doing them.

TWICE I worked blizzards where relief was physically unable to report to the facility. Those were both 20 hr or so shifts. With a 2 hr drive home that usually took 40 minutes.
(Both times we were not required to work that night.............so the 20 hr shift only accrued 4 hrs of OT. )

[DeputySC]

it's not uncommon to go a few hours over a 12 hour shift if something happens towards the end and drags you over. By policy we can't work over 16 straight hours but it has happened. We have a big department and the admin do a good job about keeping up with who's doing what and sending in relief.

This happens sometimes.
I will work a 7pm to 7am shift. Then have court at 9am so I kind of have to wait around, then of course court won't actually start until 1030am. Then by the time they get to my case and I get back home its 2pm. Then I power nap until 5pm so I can get up and ready to be at roll call at 6:45pm for another 12 hour shift. No one likes getting off work late. But the nightshift/court conflict annoys me.

[adeutch]

By policy we can't work over 16 straight hours but it has happened.

Same here, can't work over 16 hours without supervisor approval. One time I worked 18 hours because I got caught up in a late call that involved getting a search warrant signed. But the last 4 hours of that I wasn't really do anything but waiting.

One time I accidentally scheduled overtime for right after a shift.. I'm not going to say how many hours I worked..

[02paul09]

Worked a double and caught a call right at the end and wound up being there 21 hours total. Went home showered and put on a new uniform and drove back to work to start my shift again. Was up for around 36 hours total, I'm young enough that it didn't really bother me but I was definitely running on 7 cylinders at the end of it.

[HI629]

Pulled a 3 day "shift" once. Did an extradition transport, then when on the ground waiting for my return flight got called by the local field office to assist in the locate of the prisoner I just delivered. :-( The search lasted for nearly 36 hours.

[Iowa #1603]

I used to work 48 hr shifts frequently................8 on, 16 on call repeat once.......then do it again 2 days later.

We averaged at least 4 calls a night on our 16hr on call portions.

I was in my early to mid 20's at the time.-----------Now way in hades I could do that now

[jannino]

I was just wondering what's the longest shift anyone has ever done in their career.

I did 21 hours the other night while I was on stake out. The went shift went from 5PM to 2 PM the next day.

I gotta ask... what were you staking out?

[Pogue Mahone]

I gotta ask... what were you staking out?

+1
Usually security guard (w/o peace officer status) + stakeout = overstepping legal authority as well as endangering themsellves.

[mavriktu]

Hurricane Katrina.32 hours straight.Worked my 12 hour shift,when the relief came out they were short,so I volunteered to work over,thinking it would only be a few hours (we work 12 hour shifts),and wound up relieving (no pun) myself the next morning.After 8 hours into that one,we had lost all comms. so I drifted on to the house(take homes) and was never missed,.This was also the longest streak I went without a day off,9 weeks of 12-14 hour days.

[swat_op506]

28 hours straight on a homicide case. Kept getting leads, which led to another and another.
Unable to think clearly after about 20 hours, but sometimes you just gotta tough it.

[Pogue Mahone]

Hurricane Katrina.32 hours straight.Worked my 12 hour shift,when the relief came out they were short,so I volunteered to work over,thinking it would only be a few hours (we work 12 hour shifts),and wound up relieving (no pun) myself the next morning.After 8 hours into that one,we had lost all comms. so I drifted on to the house(take homes) and was never missed,.This was also the longest streak I went without a day off,9 weeks of 12-14 hour days.

I'm curious what you were doing during this time while working. I can't imagine doing anything sedentary for that long w/o dozing off.

[OneAdam12]

I was just wondering what's the longest shift anyone has ever done in their career.

I did 21 hours the other night while I was on stake out. The went shift went from 5PM to 2 PM the next day.

Three days in the army. We had battalion training Monday morning and Tuesday morning, Monday afternoon was swimming qualifications, night training humping an M60 and four boxes of 7.62, then night survival, evasion, and escape. The third day we had PT testing and rappelling from a helo UH1 Huey! Cool! Then a division sized night live fire with all the good stuff, 105's 155's eight inch, about 24 gunships and six air farce Phantoms and four A10's That third night, I had guard duty around a four square block parking lot. Me and my axehandle, poncho, helmet liner,canteen and copy of my general orders.

At the end of those three days, I couldn't even tell you my name!