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What is a platoon in policing?
A platoon — also called a squad, a shift, a watch or a relief — is the group of officers who work the same rotation together. Which platoon you are on decides which days you work and who you work them with.
The words all mean much the same thing
Platoon is common in fire and in larger police services. Squad and shift are the everyday terms in most American departments. Watch and relief turn up in agencies with a military or naval lineage. They all describe the same thing: a crew on a shared rotation.
Why the number matters
How many platoons an agency runs decides how much coverage each one carries. Three platoons on 24-hour tours average fifty-six hours a week; four platoons on twelve-hour shifts average forty-two. The rotation follows from the number, not the other way round.
Working out which one you are on
Agencies label them A, B, C and D, or by color, or by number. Whatever the label, what matters to your calendar is the pattern that platoon runs and the day its cycle starts — those two things are enough to fill in the rest of the year.
Where it turns up
Every rotation, drawn day by day · DuPont, run by four crews · Three platoons or four?
Put your own rotation on the calendar
Save the pattern your agency runs once and the year fills itself in — forward as far as you want to look, and back over the months you have already worked.
Scan to install — or hold it up for the officer next to you.
