How the police minimise the risk of driver fatigue

Speaker: Dr Yvonne Taylor, Sleep and Fatigue lead for the National Police Wellbeing Service

Recent national surveys have revealed high numbers of police officers and staff regularly report having less than 6 hours sleep in a 24-hour period, along with high levels of excessive fatigue. This is exacerbated in shift workers and is not unusual in other industries working round the clock.

Yvonne’s presentation will explore how shift work impacts on police driver fatigue and will outline some recent projects and resources that have been introduced within policing to try to minimise the risks.

About Dr Yvonne Taylor

Dr Yvonne Taylor is the Sleep and Fatigue lead for the National Police Wellbeing Service, at the UK College of Policing where she manages a number of ongoing research projects and services aimed at improving sleep and reducing fatigue for officers and staff within policing.

Yvonne is a police officer with over 26 years’ service. She has had a varied career, working in uniformed roles, including patrol, roads policing, staff officer, partnerships and custody policy units across two police forces in England.

With a particular interest in driver and performance impairment, along with overall employee wellbeing, Yvonne completed her Doctorate entitled “Shift workers, fatigued driving and the impact on road safety – An investigation involving police service employees” with the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds. In addition, she holds a MSc in Biomedical Engineering Science from the University of Dundee, and a Batchelor of Engineering in Energy Engineering from Napier University, Edinburgh.