As any general duty police officer knows, taking a break while on duty, especially for a healthy meal, is not always an easy thing to do. In fact, it is not uncommon for general duty police officers to recall shifts in which they were so busy that they did not even have time to take a bathroom break. Every police officer will also recall the many times they started a break, only to have it ended abruptly because of a need to respond to a call for service. In effect, for many general duty officers, breaks must be fit in whenever they can be during an unpredictable workload and ever-changing workflow. This is just the typical experience of general duty police work.
Centre for Public Safety and Criminal Justice Research
