The Pros And Cons Of Off Duty Jobs
Some people think that off-duty jobs that officers take hazes the line between private and public policing, raising questions about accountability, officer decision-making, police/community relationships, (Stoughton 2016). together off-duty jobs add up to over 143,000 full-time sworn officers, that is about a fifth of all state and local officers in the U.S. and about 80% of law enforcement agencies allow officers to engage off-duty jobs, with tens of thousands of officers racking up millions of hours of off-duty (Stoughton 2016).
As this article points out officers provide many services while working off-duty jobs, directing traffic for church's parking lots to crowded nightclubs or road construction projects, uniformed off-duty police officers
may also use their police powers while working these side jobs which is why the jobs pay so much more (Stoughton 2016).
Yes as a police officer I have worked off duty jobs, the money is always better than your city, state or county pay, and I think it is perfectly fine to do so. When worked in the public sector, I worked two jobs in order to provide for my family and no one had any concerns, so I see no problem with law enforcement officer doing the same as long as it does not affect the performance of their job. In some areas of the country, an officer makes less than $30,000.00 and work off duty jobs that pay as much as $90.00 hour (Neyfakh 2016).
This idea of trying to control the off-duty life of an officer is over reaching in my opinion. The Local Government Success website list guidelines such as “Off-duty officers employment shall not interfere with the officer’s employment”. How vague is this, and how about this one “Officer shall not engage in any employment or business involving the sale or distribution of alcoholic beverages, bail bond agencies, investigative work for insurance companies, private guard services, collection agencies, attorneys”, this just about eliminates any off-duty work, however there are a few that make sense such as “rendering the officer unavailable during an emergency or if the off-duty requires the special consideration be given to rescheduling the officer’s duties (Ask MRSC 2016)
As this article points out officers provide many services while working off-duty jobs, directing traffic for church's parking lots to crowded nightclubs or road construction projects, uniformed off-duty police officers
may also use their police powers while working these side jobs which is why the jobs pay so much more (Stoughton 2016).
Yes as a police officer I have worked off duty jobs, the money is always better than your city, state or county pay, and I think it is perfectly fine to do so. When worked in the public sector, I worked two jobs in order to provide for my family and no one had any concerns, so I see no problem with law enforcement officer doing the same as long as it does not affect the performance of their job. In some areas of the country, an officer makes less than $30,000.00 and work off duty jobs that pay as much as $90.00 hour (Neyfakh 2016).
This idea of trying to control the off-duty life of an officer is over reaching in my opinion. The Local Government Success website list guidelines such as “Off-duty officers employment shall not interfere with the officer’s employment”. How vague is this, and how about this one “Officer shall not engage in any employment or business involving the sale or distribution of alcoholic beverages, bail bond agencies, investigative work for insurance companies, private guard services, collection agencies, attorneys”, this just about eliminates any off-duty work, however there are a few that make sense such as “rendering the officer unavailable during an emergency or if the off-duty requires the special consideration be given to rescheduling the officer’s duties (Ask MRSC 2016)