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What is a swing shift?
A swing shift is the tour that sits between the day and night shifts — typically starting in the middle of the afternoon and finishing around midnight. On a three-tour rotation it is the middle one, and in policing it is usually the busiest.
The hours
There is no single definition. Three in the afternoon to eleven at night is the classic eight-hour version; four to midnight and two to ten are just as common. What makes it a swing is its position between the other two tours, not the exact clock times.
Why it is the busy one
Evening is when calls for service peak in most jurisdictions: the bars are open, the roads are full, and people are awake and out. Officers who have worked all three tours will usually tell you the swing carries the most work per shift.
The name
It swings between the two — you finish long after the day crew and start long before the night crew. In some places it is called the afternoon shift, the evening watch, or simply seconds.
How it is recorded
A swing tour starts during the day, so it goes on the calendar as a day shift. The rotations that use it are the ones below.
Where it turns up
Continental — days, swings and nights · Southern Swing · Continental vs Southern Swing
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.
