We’ve lined up our top 7 picks of the best police scheduling software that will make creating your police officer schedule a simple task.
Police departments face many personnel scheduling obstacles that civilian office managers will never have to deal with. From juggling 24-hour scheduling needs and complying with minimum staffing requirements to unavailable staff due to court appearances or special duty assignments–manual police officer scheduling can be an absolute headache.
And while police scheduling software can be somewhat of a digital pill for this headache, many tools are outdated, complicated, or downright impossible to use.
We’ve researched and lined up 7 of the best law enforcement scheduling software tools to help you turn your officer scheduling into an effortless, straightforward, and efficient operation.
If you don’t have the time to read through our research, jump down to our quick comparison table.
Our Top Picks
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Best all-in-one police scheduling software solution for creating and managing your police work schedule
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Good law enforcement scheduling software solution for limiting overtime
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Good scheduling software solution for meeting minimum staffing requirements
What to Look For in a Police Scheduling Software Tool
When looking for a good law enforcement scheduling software solution, keep an eye out for the following features:
- Ease of use: It’s easy to set up and offers an intuitive user experience.
- Customizability: It’s customizable to suit your team structures.
- Insert availability: Your employees can insert their availability and time-off requests.
- Scheduling: You can easily schedule your employees according to their availability and share your police officer schedule directly with your team. Ideally, law enforcement software also allows you to create templates for or copy schedule patterns.
- Manage qualifications: You can enter your employees’ qualifications and only schedule your employees for jobs they are qualified for.
- Manage open shifts: You can create open shifts for your employees to claim.
- View inconsistencies: It highlights any errors, such as when an employee’s scheduled shifts exceed the number of permitted work hours or when multiple employees are assigned to a single shift.
- Integration options: The law enforcement software integrates with your other related software, such as time clock or payroll software, or includes these capabilities.
- Price: It is cost-friendly and suits your budget.
- Support: It comes with good customer support to help you with any issues.
The 7 Best Police Scheduling Software Tools of 2023
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Connecteam — Best All-in-one police scheduling software solution.
Connecteam is the best police schedule app, as reviewed by GetApp, Software Advice, Investopedia and more. The police schedule app is designed to increase efficiency, save time, make planning a breeze and so much more thanks to Connecteam’s advanced police schedule app features.
Eliminate messy pen and paper schedules with a police schedule app providing instant access to your paid workers and volunteers so they know when they’re scheduled and if shifts are available to claim.
Your team can set their availability, request time off, and take on open shifts right from their mobile phone. Managers can approve or deny requests while on the go and employees instantly receive a notification on where their request stands. After everything is scheduled and logged, timesheets can be transferred onto payroll. With Connecteam’s integration with QuickBooks Online and Gusto, payroll is complete.
Did You Know?Connecteam integrates with Google Calendar so your employees can transfer their shifts right from the app into their personal calendars on their phones.
Connecteam also offers a free for life plan – Try Connecteam here!
Key Features
Collaborative employee scheduling
In-shift attachments (notes, images, videos, and links)
Weekly templates for recurring shifts
Automated overtime and limitation alerts
Training scheduler with attendance tracking
Real-time notifications and alerts
Daily tasks and checklists
Pros
Easy to use
Quick to implement
Top notch customer service
Mobile, desktop, and kiosk access
Feature rich
Cons
No automated scheduling
Pricing
Free-for-life plan availablePremium plans start at $29/month for 30 users
Best All-in-one Police Scheduling Software Solution
Start Scheduling Your Team -
ScheduleAnywhere — Good for: Maintaining staffing levels under requirements.
Available on
- Web
- iOS
- Android
ScheduleAnywhere is an employee scheduling software that aims to help businesses cut time spent on scheduling by up to 75%.
For the industry of public safety, ScheduleAnywhere services 911 dispatch, campus safety, fire departments, sheriff’s departments, community policing, and so on. This law enforcement software allows you to limit overtime, avoid using pen and paper spreadsheets for your police schedule, copy rotations, copy schedule patterns, and much more. Everything is managed in real-time and the schedule is accessible from anywhere, at any time.
Learn more about ScheduleAnywhereKey Features
- Automated scheduling
- Alerts and notifications
- Messaging
- Reporting
- Overtime calculation
- Vacation/leave management
Pros
- Desktop, mobile, kiosk access
- Good customer service
- Easy to use
Cons
- Users report the mobile app has some bugs
Pricing
Starts at $25/month Trial: Yes Free Plan: No
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InTime — Good for: Eliminating double-bookings.
Available on
- Web
- iOS
- Android
- Windows
- Mac
InTime is a workforce scheduling software that aims to help public safety agencies boost productivity, lower costs, ensure compliance, and minimize risk.
With it, you can gain visibility on agency-wide schedules and quickly edit police schedules. Either via desktop or a mobile app, InTime allows you to split shifts, handle shift changes, recognize overtime, meet minimum staffing requirements, and more from a single place. Additionally, you have access to time tracking and extra duty features.
Learn more about InTimeKey Features
- Automated scheduling
- Clock in/out
- Customizable reports
- Employee database
- Messaging
- Vacation/leave management
Pros
- Feature rich
- Desktop, mobile, kiosk access
- Good customer service
Cons
- Users report it can be difficult to use
Pricing
Contact vendor for price Trial: Yes Free Plan: No
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Snap Schedule 365 — Good for: Automating shift callouts.
Available on
- Web
- iOS
- Android
Snap Schedule is a police and law enforcement scheduling software that aims to help businesses save time and money, enhance productivity, and improve employees’ work-life balance.
With it, you can create conflict-free schedules based on your employees’ submitted availability and preferences, as well as their skills and positions. It also allows you to schedule tasks and breaks, automate shift callouts, and sum up labor costs based on employees’ planned work hours. Snap Schedule also signals overtime so you can make adjustments as needed.
Learn more about Snap Schedule 365Key Features
- Automated scheduling
- Employee management
- Online time clock
Pros
- Easy to use
- Desktop, mobile, kiosk access
Cons
- Poor customer service
- Expensive
Pricing
Starts at $450/year for 1 scheduler + $36/year for every 5 users Trial: Yes — 30-day Free Plan: No
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VCS Software — Good for: Setting staff shortage notifications.
Available on
- Web
- iOS
- Android
VCS Software offers a POSS solution for police agencies, sheriff’s offices, security organizations, and campus police as a single solution for all your scheduling, time tracking, electronic time cards, and payroll needs.
The law enforcement software allows you to coordinate and streamline your officer scheduling with numerous features, including rotating and fixed schedules, staff shortage notifications, and shift substitution and trades. You can also manage overtime by automatically granting or denying overtime based on specific set requirements.
Learn more about VCS SoftwareKey Features
- Automated scheduling
- Employee database
- Equipment tracking
- Employee management
- Facility management
- Messaging
- Online time clock
Pros
- Good customer service
Cons
- Only mobile access
- Difficult to use
Pricing
Starts at $6.25/user/month Trial: Yes Free Plan: No
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eSchedule — Good for: Managing open shifts.
Available on
- Web
eSchedule is another great police officer schedule software solution that aims to help public safety institutions speed up the scheduling process.
With eSchedule you can quickly create and share schedules for police officers and volunteers. Employees can set their availability, select open shifts, and add absence requests. Real-time notifications ensure that your police officers and volunteers are always up-to-date. Any shift changes, swaps, open shifts, or time off changes will generate automated notifications, so all police officers and volunteers are in the loop.
Learn more about eScheduleKey Features
- Automated scheduling
- Messaging
- Online time clock
- Vacation/leave management
- Payroll management
Pros
- Mobile access
Cons
- Top notch customer service
- Users report the software is difficult to use
Pricing
Starts at $100/month Trial: No Free Plan: No
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Vector Solutions — Good for: Identifying employee fatigue.
Available on
- Web
- iOS
- Android
- Windows
- Mac
Vector Solutions is a law enforcement and police scheduling software solution that aims to drive safer, smarter, and better decision-making in the world’s most critical industries.
With this law enforcement software, you can manage and gain insight into your staff’s schedules on-the-go. It also helps you comply with regulatory mandates by defining limits, buffers, and rest periods. In addition, they offer other software services at an extra cost, such as training and onboarding, evaluation, and equipment and inventory management.
Learn more about Vector SolutionsKey Features
- Alerts and notifications
- Employee scheduling
- Task management
- Learning and training
- Communication
Pros
- Good customer service
- Mobile access
Cons
- Users report some features are difficult to use
Pricing
Contact vendor for price Trial: Yes Free Plan: No
Compare the Best Police Scheduling Software Tools
| Topic |
Start for free
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reviews |
  |
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N/A
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| Pricing |
Starts at just $29/month for the first 30 users
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Starts at $25/month
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Contact vendor for price
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Starts at $450/year for 1 scheduler + $36/year for every 5 users
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Starts at $6.25/user/month
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Starts at $100/month
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Contact vendor for price
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| Free Trial |
yes
14-day
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yes
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yes
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yes
30-day
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yes
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no
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yes
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| Free Plan |
yes
Free Up to 10 users
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no
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no
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no
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no
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no
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no
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What Is Police Scheduling Software?
Law enforcement scheduling software is a digital tool meant to simplify and partially automate the process of creating and maintaining police work schedules and sharing these with their teams.
It gives managers good insight into important factors related to the scheduling process, such as their employees’ submitted availability and their qualifications for certain jobs, and helps reduce costly mistakes, such as double-booking an employee.
How Does Law Enforcement Scheduling Software Work?
Police scheduling software allows you to automate parts of the scheduling process depending on the software’s capabilities and your selected preferences. Such preferences can include a set weekly maximum of work hours, notifications for conflicts in the schedule, and claiming rights of shift openings.
Once you have created your police officer schedule, you can publish and share it with your team. It allows you to easily track developments, manage sudden changes, and update all relevant staff members.
Law enforcement scheduling software can also include integrations options with other related software, such as for time tracking, payroll, or even case management, or offer these features to streamline your processes.
What Are The Benefits of Using Police Scheduling Software?
As it stands, the employment of officers is expected to grow by 7% from 2020 to 2030, which further highlights the importance of making a stable and efficient police work schedule.
The main benefits of using law enforcement scheduling software include:
- Time-saving: It significantly reduces the amount of time it takes to create police work schedules by simplifying the entire scheduling process; no more having to reach out to employees about their availability or having to puzzle everyone into a fair and evenly divided schedule manually.
- Efficiency: It can make recommendations for staffing placement based on inserted data, such as your total number of employees, the number of assigned shifts, and the number of officers required for a certain job. Such recommendations can often also be linked to each of your police officers’ qualifications.
- Tracking capabilities: It allows you to keep track of the number of hours each employee works or spends on specific jobs and tasks, such as time allocated for meetings, training courses, and court appearances, and convert this data into reports.
- Manage changes: It helps you stay in the know of your team’s availability and avoid unaccounted absences. Police scheduling software allows officers to access their shift schedules from their cellphones and notify, as well as get notified directly when scheduling changes are needed.
- Reduce errors: It points out any errors before publishing the schedule, such as when an employee is scheduled for too many hours, which helps you reduce mistakes and comply with regulations.
How Much Does Police Scheduling Software Cost?
The pricing of law enforcement scheduling software largely differs per provider and often depends on the number of users and the feature package. It often ranges from $1,000-$75.000 per year. Particularly those that charge per user can get rather expensive if you’re working with a large team.
Note that high pricing does not necessarily equal a better user experience. Our number one pick, Connecteam, offers premium plans at a flat monthly rate of $39 for the first 50 employees.
FAQs
What time is shift change for police officers?
Every department is different, and there are several different ways in which you can set up your police work schedule.
The most common shift times for 8-hour shifts are:
- First shift: 07:00-15:00
- Second shift: 15:00-23:00
- Third shift: 23:00-07:00
The most popular shift times for 10-hour shifts are:
- First shift: 0600-1600
- Second shift: 1400-0000
- Third shift: 2200-0800
The two main shift times used for 12-hour shifts are:
- Day shift: 0600-1800
- Night shift: 1800-0600
and
- Day shift: 0700-1900
- Night shift: 1900-0700
How many hours do police officers work in a week?
Also this can differ per department.
Overall, a police officer’s schedule is made up of 35 to 40 hours per week, but police officers are generally expected to be on call at all times.
Are in-app messaging or communication features a necessary feature of scheduling software systems?
It’s not totally necessary, but it will definitely assist in the scheduling process. In-app messaging or communication features allow managers and employees to quickly get in touch with another colleague quickly and easily.
Furthermore, messages and phone calls on personal phones cannot be monitored, tracked, or saved — which can cause a lot of issues. With Connecteam’s law enforcement software, employees and managers can search for colleagues through the employee directory, get in touch with whomever they need, send images, GIFS, videos, and links, send targeted 1:1 messages, or reach the whole team with group messaging.
Wrapping Up A Police Officer Scheduling System
Creating an efficient police work schedule doesn’t have to be a manual and time-consuming process, especially when law enforcement scheduling software is available.
Through law enforcement scheduling software, you and your officers have real-time access to the police schedule, can avoid common errors with scheduling, time tracking, and payroll, can improve team efficiency and communication, and you have direct access for better accountability and visibility.
Our list of the best police schedule apps is a great starting point to save time, energy and money when creating your future police schedule.