Boise Police Department and off-duty work

Private security is closed, and the department is the only door

Policy 1021.4.1 is the shortest important sentence on this page. Because of the potential conflict of interest, no member of the department may engage in any outside or secondary employment as a private security guard, private investigator, or other similar private security position. Not with approval, not in plain clothes, not for a friend's bar. Closed.

What replaces it is a department channel. A private organisation, entity or individual wanting security services from Boise officers submits a police staffing request in advance. Requests are considered case by case, the Chief of Police has final authority, and the applicant has to enter into a police labor agreement and provide the compensation and full benefits of every employee requested.

From there the work belongs to the department. It is assigned, monitored and paid through BPD as special event overtime; the officer wears the department uniform and remains subject to department rules throughout. Compensation follows normal overtime procedures, and the policy states that special event security services are not subject to collective bargaining.

Several agencies here arrive at the same destination by different roads. Philadelphia bans private police work and bills employers directly. New York runs a Paid Detail Unit alongside private work and keeps them apart. Pennsylvania State Police name the forbidden roles. Boise does it with one prohibition and one intake form — and the practical effect for an officer is that the extra money is overtime on a City payslip, not a second employer.

Approval, and it runs out every year

For everything that is not security work, no member may engage in any outside employment without first obtaining prior written approval of the Chief of Police or designee. Approval sits at the Chief's sole discretion, exercised alongside City of Boise Policy 4.35, Regulation 4.35a and the City Ethics Handbook — so the department rule is one layer of three.

The application is an Outside Employment Application, completed annually, handed to the immediate supervisor and forwarded through channels. Working without that approval, or working at something the policy prohibits, may lead to discipline.

The definition is drawn around money rather than effort. Outside employment means wages, compensation or other consideration of value from another employer, organisation or individual, and it expressly includes self-employment. Anything unpaid is not outside employment at all and is exempt from pre-approval — a carve-out worth knowing, because many agencies require a form for unpaid work too.

A denial has to come with an explanation of the reason for it. The officer then has ten days to file a written notice of appeal to the Chief, submitted by email to the immediate supervisor and routed through the chain of command.

The approval can be pulled because your performance slipped

Policy 1021.3.2 lists four grounds for revoking or suspending an outside employment permit, and the first one is unusual enough to be worth reading twice.

If an employee's performance at the department declines to the point a supervisor evaluates it as needing improvement, the Chief may revoke a previously approved outside employment authorisation — and it stays revoked until that supervisor recommends the employee has re-established satisfactory performance. The second job is the thing that goes while the day job is put right.

The other three are more familiar: suspension or revocation can be written into sustained discipline as a term or condition; conduct or work that comes to conflict with the policy can end the permit mid-term; and an employee unable to perform at regular duty capacity because of injury or another condition may have their outside work restricted in the same way their department duties are restricted, until they return to full duty.

Note what is absent. Most agencies here revoke for a conflict of interest. Boise revokes for a performance rating, which makes the permit something an officer keeps by doing the job well rather than by staying out of trouble.

What will not be approved

The department reserves the right to deny any application for work that uses department time, facilities, equipment or supplies, or the badge, uniform, prestige or influence for private gain; that pays the employee for something they are already expected to do on duty; that could later come under the control, inspection, review, audit or enforcement of another department employee; or that is performed during assigned duty hours.

Two entries on the list are rarer. Work may be refused where it provides services to other city employees inside the applicant's own reporting structure — anyone they supervise or who supervises them. And work may be refused for time demands that would make department performance less efficient, followed by a sentence the policy states plainly: outside employment shall not be an excuse for poor job performance, tardiness, unscheduled absences, or refusal to work overtime.

Then the conflict list, which will look familiar from other agencies in this section: process server, repossessor, bill collector, vehicle towing, personnel investigations or any work requiring access to restricted files, assisting the defense in preparing a criminal or civil case, employment for a business or labor group that is on strike, and occupations regulated or licensed through any law enforcement agency.

Work requiring police powers or any real or implied law enforcement service as a condition of the job is out, as is anything constituting a threat to the status or dignity of law enforcement. And no officer may work as a peace officer for another public agency without prior written authorisation from the Chief.

Signing up for special event overtime

Once a staffing request is approved, officers sign up for the shifts — and there is a rule about how, which exists to stop one person taking a whole week.

For a multiple-day event, an officer or supervisor may initially sign up for one day only. After twenty-four hours have passed, that same officer may sign up for any additional days with no restriction on the number. First pass round the table, then open season.

Undercover officers and officers assigned to covert operations are not eligible to work overtime or other assignments in a uniformed or any other capacity that might reasonably disclose their law enforcement status, except in emergencies or with prior authorisation from the Division Commander.

An arrest on a special event assignment does not end the shift early. The officer completes all related reports in the normal way, and the policy is explicit that time spent writing them is incidental to the overtime assignment — part of the job rather than a separate claim. No officer may work special event employment during or at the site of a strike, lockout, picket or other physical demonstration of a labor dispute.

The department's resources stay at the department

Policy 1021.5 is one sentence and it covers more than kit. Employees are prohibited from using any equipment or resources of the department in the course of, or for the benefit of, any outside employment — and that expressly includes access to official records or databases of this department or any other agency through the employee's position.

That is the provision that quietly rules out a range of second jobs which look harmless: background screening, skip tracing, tenant checks, anything where the value an officer adds is the lookup.

Changes, and what happens on disability

If outside employment ends during the term of an approval, the employee promptly submits written notice to the Chief through the chain of command, and any later request has to go through the whole process again.

Material changes are reportable too — a change in the number of hours, the type of duties, or the demands of the job. Employees who are uncertain whether a change is material are advised to report it, which is the policy's way of saying the doubt belongs to the officer.

Disability and light duty get their own section. A member placed on disability leave or modified duty must tell their immediate supervisor in writing within five days whether they intend to keep working the outside job. The supervisor reviews the duties against any doctor's orders and makes a recommendation to the Chief.

Revocation follows where the outside work is medically detrimental to recovery as indicated by the City's risk advisors, where it requires the same or similar physical ability as on-duty work, or where the employee simply failed to give timely notice. When the member returns to full duty they may ask the Chief in writing to restore the approval.

Acting as an officer when you are off duty

Policy 338, revised to take effect on 1 August 2026, covers the other half of off-duty life — not second jobs, but what to do when something happens in front of you.

Initiating enforcement action off duty is generally discouraged. Officers should not act on minor crimes such as suspected impaired drivers, reckless driving or minor property offences; those get reported to the agency responsible. Where an officer reasonably believes there is an imminent threat of serious bodily injury or death, or significant property damage, they may take reasonable action — but the policy asks them to consider reporting and monitoring first, and to treat direct action as a last resort.

The seven factors it lists before intervening are the honest ones: being alone against possibly multiple or hidden suspects, no radio, no handcuffs, OC or baton, no cover, unfamiliar surroundings, increased risk to bystanders, and the chance of being misidentified by arriving officers or the public.

If involvement is necessary, call or have someone call 911, say an off-duty officer is on scene and give a description. Identify yourself loudly and repeatedly as a Boise police officer until acknowledged, and display official identification. Stay out of incidents of personal interest — family or neighbor disputes — and call the responsible agency instead. Professional staff should not become involved beyond notifying local law enforcement and remaining at the scene if it is safe to.

Afterwards there are two calls to make: the on-duty supervisor, who generates a command notification and may require a report, and the agency with jurisdiction, to whom the officer relinquishes authority and control over the event under Idaho Code 67-2337. Outside Boise, an officer's authority may not extend to the incident at all unless it is a felony or an immediate threat of serious injury or death.

What this page cannot tell you

There is no weekly or daily hour cap anywhere in policy 1021. Where Florida sets 72 hours combined and Seattle 64, Boise relies on the efficiency test and the revocation power instead. That is a real difference, not an omission on this page.

The policy also sets no rates. What an employer pays the City for officers under a police labor agreement, and what an officer earns on a special event shift beyond “normal overtime procedures”, are not in the manual.

And there is a second document. BPD is migrating its policy to Lexipol and says it is operating under two concurrent policies during the transition — this manual and a separate BPD Procedure Manual, dated 7 May 2026, which has not been read for this page. Procedures can add detail a policy leaves out.

Vehicles

Two provisions close this off. Outside employment may not use department equipment or resources at all, and take-home vehicles are separately barred from off-duty use except in five listed circumstances — on call with a high probability of recall, a work-related function such as maintenance or travel to a department activity, permission from the Chief or a Division Commander, use by the Chief, Division Commanders or on-call administrative members, and use by on-call investigators. The on and off duty line is drawn geographically: a member is on duty when they reach the Boise city limits and off duty when they leave them. Members living more than 21 miles from the city limits secure the vehicle at a designated location instead, and the manual warns that personal use of a City vehicle may create an income tax liability.

Every agency here, side by side on vehicles →

Common questions

Can Boise police officers work private security jobs?

No. Policy 1021.4.1 prohibits members from any outside or secondary employment as a private security guard, private investigator or similar private security position. An organisation wanting officers submits a police staffing request instead, and the work is assigned, supervised and paid by the department as special event overtime.

Do Boise police officers need permission for a second job?

Yes. No member may engage in outside employment without prior written approval of the Chief of Police or designee, applied for on an Outside Employment Application that has to be completed annually. Unpaid work is not outside employment and is exempt from pre-approval.

Can a Boise officer's outside employment approval be taken away?

Yes. It may be revoked if department performance declines to a level evaluated as needing improvement, as part of sustained discipline, where the work comes into conflict with policy, or where injury restricts the officer's regular duties.

Is there a limit on off-duty work hours for Boise police officers?

The policy sets no numeric weekly or daily cap. It allows the department to refuse work whose time demands would make department performance less efficient, and states that outside employment is not an excuse for poor performance, tardiness, unscheduled absences or refusal to work overtime.