MADISON, Wis. – Madison police officers have a say in their shift assignments through “Shift Pick Day”.

What You Need To Know

  • Madison Police allow officers to have a say in their assignment through Shift Pick Day

  • They choose available shifts and beats in order of seniority

  • In many departments, officers don't have any choice in their assignments

In an auditorium at the Madison Police Department’s training center, a team coordinated scheduling shifts for 226 officers. They call it Shift Pick Day.

Starting before 7 a.m., officers got to choose available shifts and details based on their seniority. They joined a Zoom call, where they saw a detailed spreadsheet.

The whole process worked like a sports draft. Under that analogy, Captain Stephanie Drescher would be the commissioner. She announced who was up next, called on them, and walked them through their options. They then have 10 minutes to decide what to do.

“We have three different color rotations, pink, yellow and blue,” Drescher said. “What it means is your days off, so we work six days on, three days off. It rotates, so it depends. You’re just picking what your three days off are.”

Depending on the color they chose, officers knew which holidays they’d work and which they’d be off.

Officer Ryan Jeffery was affectionately called “Vanna White” for operating the spreadsheet, but in reality, he put the whole thing together.

Officer Hunter Lisko joked about being a diva when choosing his shift. “Are people as picky as I am?” he asked the room.

Luckily, Lisko got what he wanted: to be in a relief car based in West district, on the always-desirable day shift.

“It’s a coveted thing to have kind of normal hours,” Lisko said. “I was able to get for the second year in a row onto the day shift.”

They expected Shift Pick Day to take them into the evening, while in 2022 it ended by about 3 in the afternoon.