A Colorado police department says its 4-day workweek trial made staff more energetic and less likely to quit

• The police department in Golden, Colorado trialed a four-day workweek from July.
• A commander told CNN that patrol officers are "energetic, more engaged, ready to hit the road."

A Colorado police department piloted a four-day workweek by cutting out unnecessary meetings and said that preliminary results showed it was "going fantastic."

The City of Golden, just west of Denver, switched its police department to a four-day workweek in July 2023. Staff moved from a 40- to a 32-hour workweek while maintaining the same pay and benefits.

When patrol officers come to work, they are "energetic, more engaged, ready to hit the road and get work done," commander Marcus Williams told CNN in December.

Golden City Manager Scott Vargo said that it chose the department for the trial because it was a "microcosm" of city government, with staff in a variety of roles and shift patterns.

Automation, shorter meetings, and no personal errands on work time

Interest in a four-day workweek grew during the pandemic, spawning a number of trials around the world. Workers say that a shortened week could allow them to improve their work-life balance, leaving them more time for hobbies, side hustles, caring responsibilities, and continuing education. Some say that it would reduce their stress levels.

But critics say that it could cause workers to burn out if they're expected to cram the same amount of work into fewer hours. The feasibility of introducing a four-day workweek also varies significantly between occupations.

"How do we end up with a fewer number of hours but folks still being able to be equally or more productive? This is the tricky part," Vargo said at a city meeting in May.

"It is a focus on efficiency, it's a focus on process improvement, it's increased use of technology and automation," he continued. "We wanna have fewer, shorter, more focused meetings where we involve the necessary staff rather than having unnecessary or lengthy meetings."

Vargo added that the department would look at removing distractions, such as cell phones and emails alerts, which he said interrupted staff's work flows. Personal errands, such as doctors' appointments, should also be carried out outside of working hours, he said.

As well as shortening or cutting meetings, the department has also reduced shift overlap times, CNN reported.

Vargo told CNN in December that the public was "skeptical" at the start, with concerns about call response times and whether it just equated to staff getting a raise.

In a midpoint review, the police department noted that average response times for calls were considerably quicker between July and September during the pilot than during the same period the prior year. In October, response times for Priority 1 calls were around a minute faster on average than in October 2022, the department said. Arrest numbers and vehicle ticket numbers are the same as in the past, Police Chief Joe Harvey said in November.

The city said it would also measure the trial's success with metrics such as use of sick leave, recruitment and retention, and staff productivity. The number of resignations halved, it said in its midpoint review.

Law enforcement is one of the highest turnover sectors in the city, Vargo told attendees at the May meeting. "Whatever we can do to be differentiated from other employers, the better," he said.

"Our overtime hours have gone down tremendously," Harvey said in November.

"Everything indicates that this is going fantastic."