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5-2 5-3 schedule
Five on, two off, five on, three off. A fifteen-day cycle that has run American patrol divisions for decades.
- Shift length
- 8 hours
- Cycle
- 15 days
- Average week
- 37.3 hours
- Days off
- 5 per cycle
What the 5-2 5-3 schedule is
Five shifts, two days off, five shifts, three days off. Fifteen days from start to repeat, ten of them worked.
It grew out of the eight-hour three-watch model that covered most departments through the twentieth century, and it survives because it keeps a familiar Monday-to-Friday shape while still covering seven days a week.
The three-day break at the end of each cycle is the payoff, and it is the part officers plan their year around.
How the cycle runs
One fifteen-day cycle:
Day shiftDay off
Why the days off move
Fifteen days is not a multiple of seven, so the pattern walks through the week. Your three-day break falls on a different set of weekdays each cycle, working its way around roughly every three months.
That drift is manageable on paper for a month and miserable beyond it, which is why so many squad rooms keep a printed year planner on the wall.
Hours and overtime
Ten eight-hour shifts every fifteen days is eighty hours a fortnight and a bit — about thirty-seven and a quarter hours a week averaged out.
Most agencies running it schedule additional training days or make up the difference with overtime and court time, so the real number on your check is usually higher than the schedule suggests.
Who works it
Eight-hour rotations remain standard in a large share of departments:
- Municipal police patrol
- RCMP members
- Dispatch centres
- Corrections officers
- Court and transport units
- Campus and transit police
The trade-off
What works
- A three-day break built into every cycle
- Eight-hour shifts are easier on the body than twelves
- Three watches mean a familiar day, evening and midnight structure
- Plenty of days off spread through the cycle
What hurts
- The cycle drifts through the week and never repeats on the same weekdays
- Five shifts in a row before the short break
- More shift starts per month than a twelve-hour pattern
- Hard to project without a calendar that does the arithmetic
Put it on your calendar
Fifteen days is long enough that nobody holds it in their head, and the every-other-weekend part is what people get wrong.
Save the cycle once and the calendar tells you which weekend is yours without you counting back to the start.
Common questions
How long is the 5-2 5-3 cycle?
Fifteen days — ten worked and five off — before it repeats.
Do the days off stay on the same weekdays?
No. Fifteen days doesn't divide into a seven-day week, so the days off shift each cycle and work around the calendar over a few months.
How many hours a week is 5-2 5-3?
About thirty-seven and a quarter on eight-hour shifts, before overtime and court time.
Put the 5-2 5-3 schedule on your calendar
Save the 5-2 5-3 schedule once, tell BlueShifts the day your cycle starts, and the rest of the year draws itself. Then the paid duty work you pick up around it goes in beside the shifts.
Scan to install — or hold it up for the officer next to you.
