4/10 schedule

What the 4/10 schedule is

Four ten-hour shifts a week instead of five eights. Same forty hours, one more day off, and a heavier overlap between watches for the agency.

That overlap is why so many departments moved to it. Two watches sharing a couple of hours each day means more units on the street at shift change, which is often when call volume peaks.

Pure 4/10 is a weekly pattern with fixed days off. In practice most agencies wrap it in a longer rotation — six weeks is common — where crews move through day and night tours and the days off shift with each block.

How the cycle runs

The base week. In a rotating version, this block repeats with different weekdays and flips to nights partway through the cycle:

Print this rotation (PDF) One page — the cycle above, and a blank grid for your own dates.

Rotating 4/10

A six-week 4/10 rotation is a good example of why the pattern name alone doesn't tell you your schedule. The shift length is fixed at ten hours, but which four days you work, and whether you're on days or nights, changes from block to block.

Patterns like these are the reason a rotation is worth saving once as a template and applying from a start date, rather than typed in a week at a time.

Hours and overtime

Forty hours a week, on the nose, which is the main administrative appeal — no built-in overtime and no alternating heavy and light weeks.

The catch is the tenth hour. A ten-hour shift with a holdover on the back end runs to twelve or thirteen before anyone notices, and those hours only show up if you log them.

Who works it

Compressed weeks are most common where agencies want overlap without twelve-hour tours:

• Municipal police departments
• State patrol and highway agencies
• Detectives and specialty units
• Corrections
• Public works and utilities
• Government offices

Departments that publish this rotation

Every one of these is taken from the employer's own document — a recruitment page, a class specification or a collective agreement — not from a survey or a job board. The link goes to what that agency pays.

• Aberdeen Police Department, SD — The uniform patrol division works four consecutive ten-hour days followed by three consecutive days off, under Article 11.3(b) of the City's….
• Amtrak Police Department, DC — Amtrak officers work a 4/10 schedule and hold free rail travel privileges on Amtrak nationwide.
• Austin Police Department, TX — Austin publishes it plainly on its recruiting pay page: patrol officers typically work four 10-hour days with three days off, and days off rotate….
• Castle Rock Police Department, CO — "Most patrol officers work four 10-hour shifts per week.
• Denver Police Department, CO — Denver officers work ten-hour shifts with three consecutive days off.
• Fort Worth Police Department, TX — Most Fort Worth officers work a four-day week of four 10-hour shifts, and the department fields more than 60 specialty units including SWAT.
• Healdsburg Police Department, CA — Our patrol staff works the 4/10 plan which allows for the best coverage during peak demand times and the Sergeants work a combination of the 4/10….
• Kalispell Police Department, MT — Kalispell's patrol division provides 24-hour service working three traditional teams, four days a week on 10-hour shifts, 365 days a year.
• Lexington Police Department, KY — 4/10 work schedule with 3 days off, fixed shifts and shift differential pay.
• Littleton Police Department, CO — The department lists a "4/10 Shift Schedule" among what it offers officers.
• Madison County Sheriff's Office, AL — Madison County's patrol division runs three 10-hour shifts covering 16 zoned areas across 850 square miles, with deputies typically working four….
• Norman Police Department, OK — The department states it on both of its own sites: officers work ten-hour days, four days a week, and its recruiting site puts it in the leave….
• Olathe Police Department, KS — Olathe's patrol division works a 4/10 schedule: four ten-hour days in a row, followed by three days off.
• Pittsburg Police Department, KS — The City's own Police Officer page states that patrol officers work four ten-hour shifts with a set three days off based on seniority, and that….

7 more agencies on this site publish the same pattern.

The trade-off

Put it on your calendar

Four tens is the most common compressed shift schedule in policing, and it gives you a third day off every week, and the only question most weeks is which three days you are on.

Save the pattern once and it fills in ahead of you, with the off-duty work you pick up on that third day tracked beside it.

Common questions

Is 4/10 the same as a compressed work week?

It's the most common form of one. Four ten-hour days is forty hours in four days instead of five.

Do 4/10 schedules rotate?

Often. Many agencies run 4/10 inside a multi-week rotation that moves crews through day and night tours, with the days off changing each block.

How many hours a week is 4/10?

Forty, before any overtime, holdovers or court time.