When Seattle police Sgt. Terry McMillan had small children at home, the demands of her job sometimes clashed with the demands of her role as a mother. "It was stressful," she said. "Sometimes, you were torn between leaving a sick child at home and some high-profile event going on in the city."
Seattle police Officer Stacy Litsjo thinks part-time work will enable her to care for her 21-month-old son without the juggling that working full time requires.
Now, the department is set to offer something the 30-year veteran never had access to: part-time police jobs, being created as part of a two-year pilot program.
"Over time, people have said they wished they could work part time, and that option was never available," she said. "You either worked full time or you resigned."
And losing trained officers is the last thing Seattle wants, Assistant Chief James Pugel said.
When an officer leaves the department, it typically takes a year to recruit and train a replacement who can work the streets.
And recruitment is challenging to begin with.
Though 1,240 people expressed interest in becoming Seattle police officers at a recent job fair, only 110 remained viable applicants after all the classroom and physical testing was complete.
"That's why we have to retain who we have and make the job attractive," Pugel said.
The part-time positions are one way to do that, particularly for female officers.
"As more women are entering law enforcement and more men are taking an active part in the rearing of their children, the demand for flexible work options is increasing for all officers," wrote the authors of "Recruiting & Retaining Women: A Self-Assessment Guide for Law Enforcement."
The guide was released by the National Center for Women and Policing, which also conducts an annual survey and found that, as of 2001, female officers accounted for 12.7 percent of all sworn officer positions nationwide.
More than 15 percent of Seattle's officers are female, placing the city above the national average. There are 158 sworn female officers working in Seattle, and 889 male officers.
While part-time police work is not new, typically it has taken the form of a reserve officer program designed for those who want to become officers, or those who don't want more than part-time involvement. Reserve officers usually aren't paid and receive no benefits.
Offering part-time positions as part of a family-friendly program is a more recent development.
And such policies don't benefit women alone.
Those who have expressed an interest include officers considering enrolling in college courses, others who have elderly or ill relatives needing care and those nearing retirement who would like to cut back on hours.
Sgt. Ron Alexander of the Portland Police Bureau's personnel unit said part-time work has been offered in that city for at least five years. Less than a half-dozen officers take advantage of the option, and all of them work desk jobs.
The part-timers include two men serving in the military Reserves, an officer with a relative who has serious medical issues and female officers who have recently given birth and want to spend more time with their young children.
Alexander said that, although part-time positions are available to all, women primarily exercise the option.
"That's probably 80 to 90 percent of the people who use it are young people starting families," he said.
Seattle's plan for an alternative work schedule, which could begin as early as September, stands apart from programs in Portland and elsewhere throughout the nation for two reasons: The part-time officers can keep their full benefits, which helps them, and all will work patrol, which helps the department.
Over the next few weeks, a committee made up of department and human resource officials and Seattle Police Officers' Guild representatives will select as many as 20 officers to participate in the program.
The officers must have a minimum of three years with the department and satisfactory records.
While working part time, the officers can't work at second jobs or volunteer for overtime.
And they'll work the patrol shifts Seattle needs covered the most: early weekday mornings or late weekend nights, times when staffing is low due to shift changes and the calls for service are heavy.
For the officers, the greatest benefit will be keeping their jobs as cops, rather than leaving because of outside demands.
For Officer Stacy Litsjo, married and mother of a young son, the possibility is promising.
"It's just such a great option," said Litsjo, who until recently was a third-watch patrol officer working Pioneer Square.
Taking care of 21-month-old Logan requires constant juggling for Litsjo and her husband, a King County sheriff's deputy.
"I never see my husband," she said. "We work opposite shifts."
Litsjo hasn't decided if she will apply for the part-time positions when they're offered, but it's something she and her husband will consider.
"I want to be home with him (Logan), but I don't want to quit my job," she said. "I love it."