[cars]

Originally Posted by lady cop

hi! i live on sleep deprivation...we work 12 hour shifts, and by the third one are legless from exhaustion. so when we get a day off all any of us wants to do is sleep. it's all so uneven and irregular. and often we work our days off as well. so the average workday , or night, i get about 4 hours and wake up tired. i feel the effects deeply, and during the worst of the hurricanes we were activated , not allowed to go home for days, had to "sleep" in the county jail. i ended up in hospital ICU with pneumonia, and i am a very strong healthy person normally. my concern about sleep deprivation is that it can render us unsafe on the job. being alert is of utmost importance. our reward is a three-day weekend sometimes, mine just begun, but i slept all day, too tired to think of Christmas shopping or other errands. maybe tomorrow. oh...they can send a cruiser out to get us to work on our days off too! i don't answer the door, have a mat out there that says "not without a warrant" LOL .... many other deputies that i talk to say they don't feel like Christmas , simply as a result of sleep deprivation.

Others have already said it before in the Forum, but I'll say it to. My hat is off to you & all the other law enforcement offercers out there! You all risk yourselves for the safety/protection of us mortals. Thankyou!!!