diff --git a/beacon_node/src/cli.rs b/beacon_node/src/cli.rs
index 8cc814a84ab..ea81c1bf9ec 100644
--- a/beacon_node/src/cli.rs
+++ b/beacon_node/src/cli.rs
@@ -281,5 +281,16 @@ pub fn cli_app<'a, 'b>() -> App<'a, 'b> {
                 )
                 .value_name("DIR")
                 .takes_value(true)
+                .requires("slasher")
+        )
+        .arg(
+            Arg::with_name("slasher-update-period")
+                .long("slasher-update-period")
+                .help(
+                    "Configure how often the slasher runs batch processing."
+                )
+                .value_name("SECONDS")
+                .requires("slasher")
+                .takes_value(true)
         )
 }
diff --git a/beacon_node/src/config.rs b/beacon_node/src/config.rs
index 5c7925e34c8..581efb99fa6 100644
--- a/beacon_node/src/config.rs
+++ b/beacon_node/src/config.rs
@@ -267,7 +267,15 @@ pub fn get_config<E: EthSpec>(
         } else {
             client_config.data_dir.join("slasher_db")
         };
-        client_config.slasher = Some(slasher::Config::new(slasher_dir));
+
+        let mut slasher_config = slasher::Config::new(slasher_dir);
+
+        if let Some(update_period) = clap_utils::parse_optional(cli_args, "slasher-update-period")?
+        {
+            slasher_config.update_period = update_period;
+        }
+
+        client_config.slasher = Some(slasher_config);
     }
 
     Ok(client_config)
diff --git a/slasher/src/config.rs b/slasher/src/config.rs
index d41c78c60b9..5f59dd46f3b 100644
--- a/slasher/src/config.rs
+++ b/slasher/src/config.rs
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ use types::{Epoch, EthSpec, IndexedAttestation};
 pub const DEFAULT_CHUNK_SIZE: usize = 16;
 pub const DEFAULT_VALIDATOR_CHUNK_SIZE: usize = 256;
 pub const DEFAULT_HISTORY_LENGTH: usize = 54_000;
+pub const DEFAULT_UPDATE_PERIOD: u64 = 12;
 
 #[derive(Debug, Clone, Serialize, Deserialize)]
 pub struct Config {
@@ -14,6 +15,8 @@ pub struct Config {
     pub validator_chunk_size: usize,
     /// Number of epochs of history to keep.
     pub history_length: usize,
+    /// Update frequency in seconds.
+    pub update_period: u64,
 }
 
 impl Config {
@@ -23,6 +26,7 @@ impl Config {
             chunk_size: DEFAULT_CHUNK_SIZE,
             validator_chunk_size: DEFAULT_VALIDATOR_CHUNK_SIZE,
             history_length: DEFAULT_HISTORY_LENGTH,
+            update_period: DEFAULT_UPDATE_PERIOD,
         }
     }
 
diff --git a/slasher/src/slasher_server.rs b/slasher/src/slasher_server.rs
index 1f10b70ed54..33dc02e742b 100644
--- a/slasher/src/slasher_server.rs
+++ b/slasher/src/slasher_server.rs
@@ -23,12 +23,13 @@ impl SlasherServer {
         // don't need to burden them with more work (we can wait).
         let (sender, receiver) = sync_channel(1);
         let log = slasher.log.clone();
+        let update_period = slasher.config().update_period;
 
         executor.spawn(
             async move {
                 // FIXME(sproul): read slot time from config, align to some fraction of each slot
                 let slot_clock = Arc::new(slot_clock);
-                let mut interval = interval_at(Instant::now(), Duration::from_secs(12));
+                let mut interval = interval_at(Instant::now(), Duration::from_secs(update_period));
                 while interval.next().await.is_some() {
                     if let Some(current_slot) = slot_clock.clone().now() {
                         let current_epoch = current_slot.epoch(E::slots_per_epoch());