I guess 8 hour shifts aren’t long enough for the City to find cops doing something they don’t agree with to fire them. City officials want to give the cops 4 more hours to screw up...raise the odds of it happening.
12 hour shifts with 3 days on 2 days off is a new scheduling tool that actually gives cops a bit more total time off. Not really sure how Chicago is implementing this, but it can reduce overtime costs for the municipality as well. It is a bargaining issue in many recent police contracts. Police unions are often in favor of the longer shifts because it gives officers more time with their families by giving them a larger number of days off. However, many old school police administrators feel the long shifts result in exhausted officers who may be prone to make dangerous errors in judgement.