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SOP-ADM-1 Department Time OffAdministration Division SOP-ADM-1 Issued: 12/10/2020 Revised: 11/14/2022 Revised: 6/13/2023 Revised: 8/24/2023 SUBJECT: DEPARTMENT TIME OFF ____________________________________________________________________________________ PURPOSE: To establish standard procedures for the approval or denial of time-off requests. The goal of this policy is to create consistency across the sworn units with how time off is requested and reviewed. These guidelines are designed to balance the desire to allow our employees freedom in taking time off and the responsibly to provide police and fire services to the community. This SOP is designed to give supervisors direction on how to approve time off to increase consistency within our organization. It cannot anticipate every possible scenario and it may be necessary to deviate from it based on circumstances. The decision to do so should be made by the chief or designee. PROCEDURE I. General Time Off Guidelines A. An initial time-off round robin will take place amongst each time-off team. During this pick, employees will be allowed to select time off based on seniority. Time-off selections will be limited to two (2) weeks (14 calendar days) per pick. After the round robin, all time-off requests will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis. B. Time-off requests are limited to that shift rotation’s start and end dates. Any days after the end of the shift rotation cannot be approved until the time-off round robin for the next rotation begins. C. Time-off requests that comply with the listed requirements must be submitted at least 21 days prior to the start of the time off. Those submitted fewer than 21 days prior are subject to review by the supervisor and may be denied. D. Employees may not take their training day off as a single day. If an employee submits a vacation request for several days including a training day, the request can be approved as long as the training can be made up at a later time if necessary. E. Time-off requests for 4th of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas and New Year’s Eve that comply with the listed requirements can be approved if all overtime created is covered on a voluntary basis, including shift extensions. If the overtime is not covered, the time off will be canceled. F. If an employee wishes to trade shifts with another employee for a different day, and wants to take that day off, the same rules would apply to that shift as would have applied to the original employee. G. If an employee is an FTO and is assigned a trainee, they can only trade with another FTO. H. If an employee is an FTO with a trainee assigned to them, and that employee requests time off per policy, the shift will be posted as overtime. If the shift is not filled by another FTO voluntarily, the shift will be mandatorily assigned to an FTO. II. Time-Off Requests for Patrol A. One person from each time-off team may be off on a preapproved absence. This includes training, vacation, and comp time. Although an employee being away at training would preclude another from taking time off (except as noted in section II.B), nothing prohibits the agency from sending employees to training, even if someone is already on vacation or away at school. B. If an employee is already away at training, another employee may be approved for vacation, but that time off will only be approved if any necessary overtime for that day is covered voluntarily. C. An employee may trade shifts with another employee working the same day in order to take time off as part of that time-off team, provided that no one from that team is gone. D. On double team days, the “one person per time-off team” rule still applies to pre-planned time off. Team 1 and 2 are separate groups. Any additional employees wishing to take the day off are required to arrive at the start of their scheduled shift and can then be granted the time off at the discretion of the sergeant, and no additional overtime can be incurred. III. Time-Off Requests for Fire A. One person from each time-off team may be off on a preapproved absence. This includes training, vacation, and comp time. Although an employee being away at training would preclude another from taking time off, nothing prohibits the agency from sending employees to training, even if someone is already on vacation or away at school. B. If an employee is already away at training, another employee may be approved for vacation, but that time off will only be approved if any necessary overtime for that day is covered voluntarily. C. After the initial round robin pick, for all remaining Thursdays, fire sergeant time-off requests are contingent on the patrol sergeants. If a patrol sergeant not attending training is already off, the fire sergeant time off can be approved if the overtime is covered voluntarily. IV. Time-Off Requests for Investigations A. One Detective may be off on a preapproved absence. This includes training, vacation, and comp time. Although an employee being away at training would preclude another from taking time off, nothing prohibits the agency from sending employees to training, even if someone is already on vacation or away at school. More than one Detective may be approved to be off on a holiday. B. Once the on-call schedule has been assigned, an absence will only be granted if the employee arranges coverage for the on-call. V. Time-Off Requests for COPS Team A. One COPS Officer may be off on a preapproved absence. This includes training, vacation, and comp time. Although an employee being away at training would preclude another from taking time off, nothing prohibits the agency from sending employees to training, even if someone is already on vacation or away at school. More than one COPS Officer may be approved to be off on a holiday.