NORWICH – The Norwich Police Department will be welcoming in the new year with a cooperative effort by adopting a new shift schedule in hopes of making officers more safe and giving them more time with their families.

The City of Norwich and Police Benevolent Association have agreed upon a new shift plan that will call for the department to work 12 hour days without getting paid any additional overtime.

The new 12-hour shift will reduce the number of total shifts in a day and place additional officers together for larger blocks of time. There will be approximately 4 to 5 officers working each shift under the new plan. This system allows officers to work several days in a row and they’ll receive consecutive days off. Half of the officers at a time will also receive every other alternating weekend off. Under the old schedule officers only received a weekend off every seven weeks. This is the same system employed by the New State Troopers.

The new system will require an estimated 30 percent more regular hours to be worked by department and officers will be contributing an additional 20 hours each week.

“A primary reason the officers selected to work the additional time without overtime pay is because of the time off every other weekend. It makes it much easier on the families,” said PBA, Union Vice President, Gard Turner.