Anchorage and off-duty work

Two documents, and they do not name the same signature

Anchorage answers this question twice. The Regulations and Procedures Manual sets the procedure at Code of Conduct 1.02.000, and the collective bargaining agreement with the Anchorage Police Department Employees Association sets the standard the department has to meet when it answers.

The manual's term is secondary employment, and it is drawn as widely as anything in this section: performing any service, or taking part in any enterprise, public or private, that results or is expected to result in receiving money, goods or services. Payment in kind counts, and so does a business of one's own.

Under 1.02.015J the request goes through the chain of command to the employee's deputy chief, in writing, on the Secondary Employment Request/Termination form. Employees who work directly for the Chief apply to that office instead. That is unusual — almost every agency on this site routes the permission to the chief or the sheriff, and Anchorage stops one rank short.

The agreement approaches it from the other end. Article VI Section 17 says employees shall be allowed to engage in outside employment subject to the approval of the Chief of Police, which shall not be unreasonably withheld, against two standards: no conflict of interest with the employee's status as an Anchorage police employee, and nothing that detracts from their primary employment. That is bargained language, so a refusal can be measured rather than merely accepted — the same device Washington State Patrol troopers have, and one most officers reading this section do not.

What the request has to survive

The manual's tests are about availability and fatigue before they are about propriety. Secondary employment must not render the officer unavailable during an emergency, and must not tire them to the point where duty performance suffers.

It must also not conflict with the department's objectives, impair its reputation, or compromise law enforcement.

Then the sharpest condition: where the outside duties are similar to police work, or involve people the officer deals with officially, the officer may be required to explain why no conflict exists — and may not begin the work until the Chief approves it. So the deputy chief signs the ordinary second job, and anything that looks like policing goes to the top of the building after all.

One smaller rule worth knowing, because it catches people who are otherwise doing everything right: secondary employment business cards may not be handed out, and no commercial card may be given under color of authority.

Twelve months, and then it lapses

Approval is not permanent. It expires after twelve months and is renewed annually.

Ending the work is also a piece of paperwork rather than simply stopping: written notification is required, on the same Request/Termination form the approval came from.

Twelve months is becoming the common answer — New York and Los Angeles both run annual permits — but who has to remember the date differs. Seattle ties renewal to the officer's own hire anniversary; New York demands the renewal at least ten days before expiry; Anchorage states the twelve months and leaves the diary to you.

Arresting someone while off duty

Most agencies handle the off-duty arrest somewhere else entirely. Anchorage puts it in the same part of the code of conduct, at 1.02.015B(IV), and an officer may arrest for a violation committed in their presence that needs immediate attention — provided every one of five things is true.

There is no pursuit in a personal vehicle. Police identification is displayed and the purpose announced. The arrest can be made without jeopardising anyone's safety. An on-duty officer is called to respond first, if that is practical. And the officer is not personally involved in the dispute.

That last condition is the one that does the work. It removes the argument in the car park, the neighbor, and the row that started before the badge came into it.

One drink, and the indemnity goes with it

The alcohol rule at 1.02.015F(V) is in two parts, and the second is the bluntest sentence on this page.

First, a department weapon may not be carried off duty after any amount of alcohol. Not impaired, not over a limit — any amount. A privately owned weapon is not barred in the same way.

Second, an officer who has had anything to drink shall under no circumstances act under color of authority, and if they do, they may not be indemnified by the Municipality in any legal action that follows.

Other agencies warn officers that the city may not defend them in private work — New York and Los Angeles both do, and both advise getting the employer to commit in writing first. Anchorage attaches the same loss of cover to something an officer might do on their own doorstep, on their own time, having had one drink.

Special events are overtime here, not a private hire

There is a second kind of off-duty work in Anchorage, and it is not private at all. The agreement treats special event staffing as departmental overtime, allocated by seniority.

A special event is defined as any event needing a police officer for traffic or crowd control — school and college activities, sporting events, concerts, festivals, parades and demonstrations. One supervisor is assigned for every seven employees scheduled, and the assignments are posted no less than five days ahead where possible.

Who gets them is a seniority question: work outside the regularly scheduled workday goes by position seniority within the section — traffic and patrol count as one section — and then across the division. School resource officers get the first opportunity at school district functions for the schools they are assigned to, and only if they do not take them does the work go out division-wide.

It is worth being clear about which document answers which question. The agreement is describing the department's own overtime, not a market in private details; the manual's secondary employment rules cover the outside employer. Philadelphia and Los Angeles County run the two channels side by side and say so explicitly. Anchorage keeps them in separate documents, which is why an officer can read one and think the other does not exist.

Four schedules, and a bid three times a year

Article VII of the agreement sets out the schedules an Anchorage officer can actually be working, and there are four: 5-8s (eight-hour shifts across five consecutive days), 4-10s (ten-hour shifts across four), 3-12s with one 8 — three twelve-hour shifts one week, three twelves and an eight the next, eighty hours a pay period, with the schedule starting midway through the eight-hour shift — and 9-80s. Other patterns are possible by mutual written agreement, and days off are consecutive.

None of it is fixed for the year. Shift preference and days off are bid by position seniority and change at the start of each four-month period — three times a year, the first beginning 1 February — with requests due by the fifteenth of the month two months before, and the result posted by the fifteenth of the month before the change. Which is to say: three times a year, an officer's whole pattern of days off moves. Rebuilding that by hand is exactly what BlueShifts was built to stop; the app holds any of these four as a repeating template and redraws the month from it.

Two more numbers worth carrying. Shift differential is 3% for a swing shift and 6% for a mid, and the agreement defines them by start time: day starts between 5:00 am and 11:59 am, swing between noon and 6:59 pm, mid between 7:00 pm and 4:59 am. And there is a ceiling on the day itself — a sworn employee shall not be required to work more than eighteen consecutive hours, with at least six hours off afterwards, or more than twenty, with at least ten hours off.

What these documents do not tell you

Neither one sets an hour cap on outside employment. There is no weekly ceiling here of the kind Augusta, Seattle and New York all publish — the manual's test is whether the work makes the officer unavailable or tired, which is a judgement rather than a number.

Nothing read here prices anything, or says how an outside employer arranges cover, or what happens if an officer is hurt doing it. The agreement also points at an APD Mandatory Rest Policy whose hour limits bind regular shifts, overtime and shift trades — that policy is named but not published alongside the contract, and it is the document to ask for if the question is how many hours you may be awake for.

Vehicles

Neither document read here says whether a municipal vehicle may be taken to an outside job — the agreement carries an article on home cars that has not been read. What the code of conduct does set are two limits that catch an officer heading out afterwards: no municipal vehicle within four hours of an alcoholic drink or with any alcohol in the system, and no transporting alcohol in a municipal vehicle off duty unless the officer is in plain clothes and every seal is intact.

Every agency here, side by side on vehicles →

Common questions

Who approves outside employment at the Anchorage Police Department?

The written request goes through the chain of command to the employee's deputy chief, on the Secondary Employment Request/Termination form — not to the Chief, except for employees who work directly for that office. Work similar to police duties may not begin until the Chief approves it. The union agreement adds that approval shall not be unreasonably withheld.

How long does approval last?

Twelve months. It is renewed annually, and ending the work needs written notification on the same form.

Can an Anchorage officer carry a weapon off duty after a drink?

Not a department weapon — those may not be carried off duty after any amount of alcohol. A privately owned weapon is not barred that way, but an officer who has had anything to drink must not act under color of authority, and the policy warns they may not be indemnified by the Municipality if they do.

Is there an hour limit on off-duty work for Anchorage officers?

Neither the manual nor the union agreement sets a weekly ceiling on outside employment. The manual's test is whether the work would make the officer unavailable during an emergency or tire them to the point duty performance suffers. Separately, the agreement provides that a sworn employee shall not be required to work more than eighteen consecutive hours, with at least six hours off afterwards, or more than twenty, with at least ten.