Law Enforcement Officer Recruitment and Informed Consent

Appendix F

Pilot Study Recruitment email

Dear Sir or Madam:

We are recruiting police officers to participate in a research study on fatigue management. Your participation is voluntary, and if you prefer not to participate, you may do so without penalty.

If the following characteristics are true for you and you are willing to learn more, please contact us. These are the criteria for police officers participating in the pilot study.

• Patrol police officer working full time (no alternate assignment because of injury, illness, or other reasons)

• Working fixed night shift including hours of midnight to 6 AM (no rotating work schedules)

• Not pregnant or planning to become pregnant during the 12 weeks of the study

• No travel across three or more time zones in the previous 3 months or plans for travel across three or more time zones during the 12 week study period

• New patrol police officers in their first field experience after graduating from the police academy who have worked less than 1 year as a police officer

• Experienced patrol officers who have worked 2 to 10 years as a police officer.

If you chose to participate, you will be asked to complete an online survey about your work experience, sleep patterns, sleepiness levels, and your knowledge about sleep and work schedules. This survey will take about 10 minutes. Then you will wear a wrist actigraph to monitor your sleep and movement for 28 consecutive days. An actigraph is about the size of a wristwatch and records your activity. During these 28 days you will also be asked to complete an online sleep diary at the beginning and end of your day, which will take about 1 minute each time to fill out. About 14 days into the study, you will be asked to complete an online training about sleep, managing fatigue, and coping with shift work. The training will take approximately 2.5 hours, which you can take at times that are convenient for you. You will then be asked to fill out a survey on your perceptions of the training and knowledge about sleep and work schedules, which will take about 10 minutes. The study will not collect data from you during weeks 5 to 10 of the study. During weeks 11 and 12 of the study, you will wear a wrist actigraph and fill out a sleep diary for 14 days. At the end of the 14 days, you will fill out an online survey that includes your sleep patterns and sleepiness levels: this will take about 10 minutes.

If you decide to participate, your responses and data will be confidential, and you will not be identified personally in any results reported from the study. We do not anticipate there will be costs or risks associated with participating in the study. You will receive several benefits from participating in the study – a $20 gift card and training on how to improve your sleep and reduce your fatigue. In addition, your participation will greatly benefit the policing profession as we try and find effective ways of reducing fatigue and promoting sleep, health, and safety. These large police organizations have sent formal letters of support for this project: Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training; Department of California Highway Patrol; International Association of Chiefs of Police; and Major Cities Chiefs Association.

If you would like to learn more about the study, I will hold several information sessions, which you can attend on [give dates and times]. You can also email Dr. Claire Caruso ([email protected]) who leads the study and is a Research Scientist from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. She can talk with you by phone about the study. Please send a response within the next two weeks that you are interested in participating. If you would prefer not to participate, please feel free to disregard this email.

Warm regards,

Lois James

Washington State University