California Highway Patrol and secondary employment

The chapter is not about off-duty work

Most agencies in this section write a policy about off-duty or secondary employment. California writes a chapter called Inconsistent and Incompatible Activities, and secondary employment is one part of it, sitting alongside gifts, misuse of position, political activity and social media.

The legal footing is a section of the state Government Code providing that a state employee shall not engage in any employment, activity or enterprise that is inconsistent, incompatible, in conflict with or inimical to their duties. Each appointing authority decides which activities those are for its own people. To sustain an allegation the Department must prove by a preponderance of evidence that the conduct violated the activities the chapter designates.

The definition is correspondingly broad. Secondary employment activity means holding public office, direct or indirect ownership of business concerns, or employment for compensation. The chapter also says plainly that it does not attempt to list every possible limitation, and that nothing in it is the only rule an employee has to observe.

The chapter is dated August 2025, so this is current material.

It runs the other way too: employees are told the Department has no desire to regulate their private affairs, but must prohibit what could cause a conflict of interest, embarrassment or discredit.

No police work at all — and the firearm is the test

Uniformed employees may not directly or indirectly engage in any secondary employment for any law enforcement agency, or for any employer that uses peace officer power or authority, or where the work requires or uses the carrying of a firearm. Compensated or not.

That last clause is what makes it different. Four agencies in this section remove private police work as a category, and each does it by a different route. Philadelphia bans it and bills the work as departmental overtime. Orange County bars any use of the uniform, badge or authority of office. Illinois State Police points at the statutory definition of a peace officer. California reaches the same place and then adds the gun: a job needing an armed presence is out whether or not anyone calls it police work.

There is exactly one exception, and it is a single named place. Uniformed employees may serve as peace officers, appointed under a section of the state Food and Agriculture Code, at the California Exposition and State Fair. Even then they may use no departmental equipment, may wear no item of uniform identifiable with the Department, and must not interject the Department into any issue arising during that work.

King County names five venues where its deputies may work, carved out of a geographic limit. This is the opposite shape: one venue carved out of a total ban.

The form, and the thirty-day fork

Before any secondary employment an employee completes a CHP 318, a notice of intent, describing the duties in detail and saying whether the work is permanent, seasonal, intermittent or temporary. The signature has to be original and in blue ink. Nothing starts until the approved form comes back from the commander.

The supervisor inquires into the proposed duties, checks that the description covers everything that will actually be done, confirms the work will not interfere with state duties, and certifies that it has been discussed with the employee.

The commander then checks the employee's standing — whether they are on interim or attendance reporting, have a recent “needs improvement” monthly evaluation, or have received a memorandum of direction or notice of adverse action. Any of those calls for closer examination before approval.

Then the part found nowhere else. The duration of the work decides how far up the chain the request goes. Approved for 30 calendar days or less, the commander signs and it is filed — it never reaches the Division Chief, and the employee may start. Approved for 31 days or more, it is scanned to the Division Chief for final approval, and the employee may not start until told the Division has approved it.

Elsewhere the escalation depends on rank, or on the kind of work. Here a short job and a long job at the same employer take different routes.

The Division can overturn either answer

A refusal does not end at the commander. If the commander disapproves, the form is still forwarded to the Division Chief for review, with the specific reasons recorded on it — and the Division may approve it, countermanding the commander. The Area command is notified, the employee is told the decision changed, and they may then work.

It runs the other way too: where the Division disapproves something the commander approved, that is recorded and the approval is replaced.

Both directions are written out, with the paperwork spelled out each time — the superseded copy in the field folder is replaced and the old one destroyed.

Compare Clayton County, where a request travels to the Chief whether or not a lower level recommends it, and UT System, where there is no appeal at all. Here the appeal is automatic, and refusal comes with reasons in writing on the form. An employee who thinks the decision improper or discriminatory may then use the departmental grievance and complaint procedure.

Your approval expires on your appraisal

If the employee does not put an expiration date on the form, the commander sets one to coincide with the employee's next annual performance appraisal.

At that appraisal a determination is made whether the conditions that allowed the work have changed, and whether the secondary employment has adversely affected job performance. If performance is satisfactory and the work is still as described, the commander extends it — and the extension runs one year, from that appraisal to the next.

So the renewal date is personal rather than a common date, and it is attached to the review of how well the officer is doing their actual job. Seattle expires permits on the officer's hire date, which is personal but arbitrary. This ties the two questions together: the same conversation that assesses performance decides whether the second job continues.

The commander must also discuss the request with the employee to make sure one point is understood: special considerations in scheduling because of the secondary employment shall not be granted. The second job never moves the roster.

Approval can be revoked where the work becomes incompatible or detrimental, with the Division Chief's concurrence — and the listed triggers are performance ones again: interim reporting, attendance reporting, a needs-improvement evaluation, a memorandum of direction, adverse action. If an employee stops the work themselves they must tell the commander in writing within ten calendar days. On transfer to a new command, a new form goes to the new commander.

Sick leave is a medical question, not a clock

Secondary employment is not an acceptable reason for using sick leave, and doing so may bring discipline.

The interesting part is what happens when an employee is genuinely off. Secondary employment may be suspended while on sick leave, injury leave or limited duty if it interferes with the employee's ability to recover — and the commander may require written assurance from an appropriate medical authority that the work will not aggravate the injury or prolong recovery.

Every other sick-leave provision we have read is a stopwatch. Clayton County runs 24 hours from the start of the missed shift, Newport News from the end of it, UT System eight hours, Saint Paul counts 100 hours across the whole year, King County defers to the bargaining agreement's definition of a workday. California asks a doctor instead. It is the only agency here where the answer depends on the individual injury rather than a rule applied to everyone.

When work is suspended on those grounds, Human Resources, the Office of Employee Relations and Internal Affairs are all notified.

What is prohibited, and the carve-outs inside it

The prohibited list is organised by industry, and several entries carry a carve-out worth knowing.

Ambulances are barred — no work on the premises of, and no being owner, agent or employee of, any private ambulance firm, paid or unpaid. But uniformed employees may work for pay as an EMT or paramedic for a licensed ambulance company. The company is out; the clinical role is in.

Tow trucks are barred outright on the same terms. So are vehicle dismantlers, and owning the facilities of or being licensed as a vehicle dealer. Vehicle repair and maintenance is allowed, but an employee may not certify mechanical corrections on a law enforcement document unless they hold the proper installer's or adjuster's license — and more generally, no employee may use peace officer power to certify any registration or mechanical condition document.

Commercial vehicle work is closed to uniformed employees assigned to commercial enforcement where the firm is subject to the Department's enforcement, inspection or audit control, and no employee may drive for hire a load whose routing the Department determines.

Liquor: uniformed employees may not own, act as agent for, or work anywhere whose primary purpose is dispensing or serving on-sale alcohol — but employment where alcohol service is only incidental is fine. Marijuana is closed at cultivation, distribution and dispensing, including ownership and acting as an agent.

Court-referred traffic violator schools: no financial interest, no handling funds, and no role where the employee's pay would be proportionate to how many students turn up.

And expert witness work is prohibited outright — no testimony on law enforcement practices or use of force, no examining crash scenes or giving opinions on causes, no adjusting insurance claims, no mechanical examination of vehicles in any case a police or regulatory agency has investigated. The only exception is where legal process has been served and the employee is compelled by court order. Orange County's bar was the widest we had found; this one is wider still, because it reaches the subject matter rather than the side.

Lawyers, and running for office

Two categories get their own approval routes.

The practice of law. Employees may not practise criminal law at all, nor civil law where the defendants are the State, its agencies or departments, or employees sued in their official capacity. They may not practise with a firm that does criminal work or holds such pending civil actions. And they may not act for departmental employees before state administrative tribunals or in departmental inquiries. Even an unpaid internship in a district attorney's office may be incompatible. Every such request goes to both the Office of Legal Affairs and Internal Affairs before final approval.

Public office. Candidacy or appointment is at the discretion of the Commissioner, and the form goes to the Commissioner's office. The provision that stands out: an employee may not publicly disclose their candidacy until the Commissioner has approved it. If approved, the commander ensures they make no formal public appearances representing the Department while campaigning; if elected or appointed, the Commissioner is notified within five days of accepting.

Some offices need no form at all — office in a fraternal or charitable organisation, a service club, serving on a precinct election board, or holding office in an employee organisation, where the service is part-time, off duty and unpaid.

And three offices are incompatible outright: sheriff, constable, marshal, or judge of a judicial district. A CHP officer may not also be a sheriff.

Military service is the other exemption: no form is needed for it. That completes a four-way split worth remembering — Illinois State Police treats military reserve service as secondary employment needing a form, St. Mary's County says it expressly is not, Honolulu caps how many people may serve at once, and California simply exempts it.

Two rules aimed at the roster

Buried in the general conduct annex is a provision that belongs on this site more than most: no uniformed employee shall accept or offer any form of financial compensation or gift for a shift change or swap.

Approved mutual exchanges of shifts, days off, beats and other assignments are expressly fine. What is prohibited is money or a gift moving with them. Nobody else in this section addresses paying someone to take your shift, and anyone who has worked a rotation knows the practice exists.

The second is the central listing. Every command keeps a list of all personnel with approved secondary employment: name, classification, identification number, the employer's name, the nature of the work, and how the employee can be contacted in an emergency. It is immediately available to every supervisor and manager.

That last field is the point. St. Mary's County publishes lists of approved and refused employers with no officer named on them. This list is the opposite: it names who is working where, so the Department can find them when it needs them.

The rest of the conduct rules

The chapter's general conduct annex reaches well beyond second jobs, and some of it is worth knowing because it shapes what an officer can do on their own time.

No using the badge, identification card, uniform, equipment, prestige or influence of the position for private gain, for themselves or anyone else. No using state time, facilities, equipment or supplies that way either. No using official knowledge for personal gain. No divulging information from departmental reports, records or manuals without authorisation, and no unauthorised sale, loan or gift of a crash photograph or report.

No recommending a particular attorney, adjuster, investigator, tow service, ambulance service or bail bondsman to people involved in crashes — the everyday version of the tow and ambulance bans above.

No releasing a police-related article for publication without the commander's approval, with coursework excepted. The social media rules mirror the same list: no posts using the badge or uniform for advantage, no posting departmental records or camera footage, no political participation while on duty or in uniform, and no posting a law-enforcement article identifying yourself with the CHP without prior approval.

Political endorsements are handled with unusual precision. An employee endorsing a candidate or issue in writing may use their name and a generic rank and may add the occupation “Peace Officer” — but using their actual rank or classification is prohibited, and the words “California Highway Patrol” or “CHP” must not appear. Asked for an opinion while on duty or in uniform, they should say it would be inappropriate to comment as a member of a public agency. Off duty, where a comment could read as official, it should be prefaced with “this is my personal opinion” or “as a private citizen”.

A separate regime for civilian staff

Non-uniformed employees working for a motor carrier or a motor carrier industry consultant sign a second document as well as the form — a stipulation agreement setting out what they may and may not do.

The underlying prohibition is a conflict test rather than a flat ban: no relationship for personal gain with any motor carrier entity or consultant where any part of it is subject to that employee's direct or indirect audit, inspection, enforcement, dispatch, review or control — and it reaches any such business operating anywhere inside the employee's assigned Division, not just the ones they personally handle.

The stipulations then do the work. Employees exempt from federal overtime rules may not do secondary work Monday to Friday between 0800 and 1700, other than on recognised holidays, or during any other assigned shift; employees covered by those rules may not do it during their scheduled shift. No state equipment of any kind. No use of departmental systems or databases for the secondary work — the agreement names them individually.

No advocating or testifying against the Department in that capacity, and if called to do so, the supervisor is told immediately. No being present for a secondary employer at an inspection or review being conducted by another departmental employee. And a written list of clients every quarter, including everyone who attended any seminar the employee ran and who those attendees work for.

Breaching any stipulation brings immediate revocation and possible discipline.