Background Police officers often work long, unsocial hours in a highly pressurized environment and may experience difficulties in managing their health and well-being. Their jobs can be highly stressful and feature unusual working hours and multiple shift patterns. When considering the policing environment of 2021, many roles that were previously the domain of warranted officers are now being carried out by nonwarranted police staff equivalents. These police staff roles are relatively new to policing but put staff under some of the same stresses as police officers. A UK police force requested help to investigate technologies that could be used to improve health and well-being and research how these technologies could be used to measure and track health behavior change. Objective Historical research studies need to be appraised in light of this new policing environment, and new research also needs to include this shift in dynamics when considering aspects of policing, including their health and well-being. This study explores police officer and staff attitudes toward and their use of existing health-related technology, highlights existing practices, and gathers views about how technology could be used more effectively. Methods A web-based survey was completed by police officers and staff (N=213) during the initial period of the UK lockdown in 2020. The survey was designed to find the solutions that participants used outside of those supplied by their employer, identify issues or problems, and find what they would like a hypothetical app to focus on. Additional requirements data were captured through client meetings, including discussions concerning previously attempted solutions and those currently in place. Thematic analysis was undertaken to identify the key themes. Results Attitudes toward and uses of existing health-related technology were captured, and existing practices were highlighted. Participants identified a need for an app to consider that a user was on shift—an important point, as many issues and problems with elements of their health and well-being involved shift work. Data also highlighted that a multifunctional tool would be more beneficial to participants than focusing on just 1 element. The key features and four domains were identified for app coverage. The prioritized order of importance of the four domains was activity, food and diet, sleep, and fluid intake. Conclusions For police officers and staff, research data suggest that there is a previously unidentified requirement for a mobile app that could provide an easily accessible platform for them to use, regardless of the current location; one that could provide guidelines on diet, lifestyle habits, and health behavior to help the user make informed decisions to assist in personalized behavior change. Notably, one which is multifunctional and which also aligns effectively with the irregular shift patterns of its users.

BACKGROUND Police officers often work long, unsocial hours in a highly pressurised environment and may experience difficulties when managing their health and wellbeing. Those working in the police face different health issues in comparison to the general public; their job can be highly stressful and feature unusual working hours and multiple shift patterns. A UK police force requested help investigating technologies which could be used to improve health and wellbeing; researching how these technologies could be used to measure and track health behaviour change. OBJECTIVE Research aims were focused on exploring current police officer attitudes to health and wellbeing technology and their use of existing health-related technology, conducted via an online survey for police officers and client meetings. Highlighting existing practice, gathering views about how technology could be used and opinions on what specific areas of health officers would like to see covered in a tailored mobile technological solution. This information would be used as a starting point for future prototyping of a targeted application that aimed to help solve issues that existing technology did not effectively cover. METHODS An online survey was completed by (n=213) police officers during the first period of UK lockdown. The survey was designed to find out what solutions the participants used outside of those supplied by their employer, as well as identifying issues or problems and what they would like a hypothetical application to focus on. Due to challenges arising from COVID-19 restrictions - in terms of logistics and operational pressures on the commissioning force – additional requirements data was captured through client meetings; including discussions concerning previous attempted solutions and those currently in place. A thematic analysis was undertaken to identify key themes. RESULTS Key challenges and opportunities of designing and delivering an integrated digital solution and maintaining user engagement were highlighted. Four key themes were identified for application coverage. These were the four areas of health and wellbeing that participants felt they would benefit from the most. In order of importance these were Activity, Food and Diet, Sleep, and Fluid Intake. CONCLUSIONS Research data suggests there is a requirement for a mobile application which would provide an easily accessible platform for police officers to utilise regardless of current location. One which could provide guidelines on diet, lifestyle habits and behaviour to help the user make informed decisions to assist in personalised behaviour change. Notably one which also aligns effectively with the irregular shift patterns of its users.