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Blue Dispatch and BlueShifts
Blue Dispatch finds you off-duty work. BlueShifts keeps the record of every job you work, wherever it came from. Many officers would use both.
What Blue Dispatch is
Blue Dispatch is not really a calendar app, and that is the important thing to know. It is a platform for finding off-duty work: its listing describes job filters, booking shifts, clocking in and out, and earnings tracking for the jobs you take through it. Location is used while you are clocked in.
Apps like this exist to connect officers with vendors. BlueShifts does not do that and is not trying to.
What Blue Dispatch does well
- It finds you work. BlueShifts cannot do that.
- Booking and clocking in are handled in one place.
- It tracks earnings for jobs booked through the platform.
Where BlueShifts is different
These two apps sit either side of the same job, and plenty of officers would use both.
- Blue Dispatch tracks the jobs it gave you. BlueShifts tracks all of them — whichever coordinator, vendor or platform they came from.
- Your rotation lives here too, so off-duty work sits next to the shifts it has to fit around.
- Mileage, paid and unpaid status, and a PDF report covering everything you worked.
- No location tracking and no account. Nothing leaves your phone unless you choose to share it.
Everything below is on your phone in a couple of minutes: the rotation, the off-duty work, and what it earned you.
Side by side
| BlueShifts | vs | Blue Dispatch |
|---|---|---|
| What it is for | ||
| Not stated | Finds off-duty jobs for you to pick up | Yes |
| Not stated | Book and clock in to jobs through the app | Yes |
| Yes | Your own rotation calendar | Not stated |
| Yes | Works with jobs from any source, not just one platform | Not stated |
| Off-duty work and money | ||
| YesFor every job you enter | Earnings tracking | YesFor jobs booked through the app |
| Yes | Off-duty jobs logged against the employer | Not stated |
| Yes | Paid and unpaid tracked separately | Not stated |
| Yes | Mileage recorded per job | Not stated |
| Yes | Year totals for shifts, hours, miles and pay | Not stated |
| Yes | PDF report you can hand to someone | Not stated |
| Yes | Hourly rate or flat pay per job | Not stated |
| Yes | Travel time or travel pay, kept separate | Not stated |
| Yes | Mileage reimbursement when a patrol car is used | Not stated |
| YesCancelled, pending, awaiting payment, paid | Four payment states, not just paid or unpaid | Not stated |
| Yes | Live earnings while you work the job | Not stated |
| The rotation and calendar | ||
| Yes | Build your own custom rotation | Not stated |
| What the year tells you | ||
| Yes | Which scheduler you get the most work through | Not stated |
| Yes | One employer against the average of the rest | Not stated |
| Yes | Your employers ranked by what they brought in | Not stated |
| Yes | The days you normally work for each employer | Not stated |
| On the road | ||
| Yes | Address autocomplete, or drop a pin | Not stated |
| Yes | Navigate to the job from your calendar | Not stated |
| Yes | Send a directory entry or a scheduler by text | Not stated |
| YesA Court category; the subpoena details go in the notes | Court dates and subpoena details | Not stated |
| YesA Training category, with alerts before the day | Training dates, set well ahead | Not stated |
| The app itself | ||
| Yes | Works with no internet connection | Not stated |
| Yes | Backup and restore | Not stated |
| YesThirteen intervals from 5 minutes to a week, or your own | Reminders and alerts | Not stated |
| Yes | Import and export your schedule | Not stated |
| Yes | Ready-made rotation templates | Not stated |
| YesFour skins, dark mode in one tap | Skins and a full dark mode | Not stated |
| Yes | No account needed | Not stated |
| Sharing with someone else | ||
| Yes | Link two phones by scanning a QR code | Not stated |
| Yes | Shifts and events shared, pay never shared | Not stated |
| Yes | Send someone your rotation template | Not stated |
| Privacy | ||
| Not statedNone | Location tracking | YesWhile you are clocked in |
| Yes | Data stays on your device | Not stated |
From each app's own App Store listing, checked 1 August 2026 — the Blue Dispatch listing.
How this comparison was put together
Everything in the table comes from each app's own App Store listing, checked on 1 August 2026. Where a listing does not mention a feature, the table says not stated rather than no — an app may do something its listing never mentions. Nothing here is a test of the apps themselves. Anything marked in development is a BlueShifts feature being built now, not one you can use today.
Listings change. If something below is out of date or wrong, tell us and it gets fixed.
Coming from Blue Dispatch?
Blue Dispatch finds you work through your agency's system. BlueShifts records every job you work, whoever it came from — which is why plenty of officers run both.
Scan to install — or hold it up for the officer next to you.
