Clark County deputies and off-duty employment

What is published, and what is not

Two documents carry Clark County's off-duty rules, and neither is the one most deputies work under.

The first is the collective bargaining agreement between the county and the Sheriff's Administrator's Association — the commanders, in two units, enforcement and corrections. Its Article 19.4 is the fullest statement of off-duty rules the county publishes. It also ran from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2022, so its terms need confirming.

The second is the county's own Human Resources policy 13.0, whose section on outside employment applies to every county employee — deputies, road crews, librarians alike.

The deputies' guild agreement, which is what most sworn staff actually work under, is not published. So read what follows as the rule for commanders, and the county-wide floor for everyone else.

Bring back a signed indemnity

This is the provision found nowhere else in this section, and it puts the work on the officer.

As a condition of approval, an employee agrees to obtain a written agreement from the off-duty employer to defend and indemnify Clark County against any claim arising out of the deputy's activities while working that job. The county supplies the form. Defending any such claim is expressly the off-duty employer's responsibility.

Elsewhere, indemnity is arranged between the department and the business, or handled by a scheduling company, or simply not mentioned. Here the deputy is the one who has to put the form in front of a shop owner and come back with a signature before the permission is granted.

It is worth seeing what that does in practice: a business that will not sign is a business you cannot work for, and you find that out before the department does.

This agency153

Median of the 81,702

Largest here10,744

One of 8 sheriffs' offices here with a traced figure. Each number is what that agency itself publishes, so some are authorized strength and some are actual headcount — useful for scale, not an exact comparison.

Permission first, and the grounds for refusal

An employee who wants outside work informs the Sheriff in writing and gains permission before accepting the employment — not before starting it. The request must fully describe the nature of the work and the hours.

The grounds for refusal are broader than most: the request may be denied if the work involves misuse of the commission, or could adversely affect on-duty performance, or could adversely affect the Sheriff's Office image or efficiency. That last phrase is unusually wide — it reaches work that is perfectly lawful and does not interfere with a single shift.

If an approved job is later found to interfere, the employee will be required to terminate that employment. And the priority is stated flatly: the primary obligation of an employee who accepts off-duty work is to the Sheriff's Office, and employees directed to report for work will do so regardless of their off-duty employment situations.

For anyone building a month around a rotation, that is the sentence to notice. An off-duty commitment is not a reason to be unavailable.

Covered both ways, and why that is not a contradiction

Two provisions sit a page apart and appear to pull against each other.

Article 19.4.3 makes the off-duty employer responsible for defending claims arising from the deputy's off-duty activities. Article 19.5 has the county defending and indemnifying employees against allegations arising from acts within the scope of their duties — and it says so whether the employee was on duty or off duty at the time.

Both are true because they answer different questions. The moment a deputy acts as an officer — makes an arrest, intervenes in a crime — that is within the scope of the commission and the county stands behind it. The moment the deputy is doing the business's work as the business's employee, the business stands behind it. Clay County in Florida draws the same line in almost the same words, and puts the boundary at the point where the deputy begins enforcing the law.

The county's indemnity has limits written in: it does not extend to dishonest, fraudulent, criminal or malicious acts, nor to suits brought by the county itself.

The rule for everyone below commander

The county's HR policy is shorter and blunter, and it is the only published rule covering the rest of the office.

Outside employment is permitted so far as it creates no actual, potential or apparent conflict of interest and does no harm to the employee's county work. Four conditions follow: the hours must not infringe upon or overlap the assigned county hours; county equipment, supplies and working time must not be used; no conflict may exist between the outside role and the county position; and an employee whose outside work might breach the policy must notify their department head, who may ask for whatever information is needed to judge it.

If a conflict is found, the employee is told, and continuing anyway is a disciplinary matter. The policy also allows a conflict to be cured by changing the hours or duties on either side rather than ending the job outright.

There is nothing here about details, rates, coordinators or uniforms — because this is a policy written for a whole county workforce, not for police work.

The command duty week

One more provision shapes when a commander can take outside work at all.

Enforcement and corrections each have a Command Duty Officer, and the responsibility rotates every fourteen days. It pays $600 per rotation, it can be traded with another commander on notice to the branch chief, and while holding it a commander must be within sixty minutes' response time of the county.

That is a geographic leash, not just an on-call obligation. For two weeks in the rotation, any outside commitment has to sit inside an hour's drive.

Commanders otherwise work a 40-hour week on flexible scheduling, taking time back in the same or the following pay period rather than accruing it.

Why the staffing matters here

Clark County is one of the most thinly staffed sheriff's offices in Washington. The state chiefs and sheriffs association counted 147 commissioned officers in 2024, the lowest law enforcement staffing per head of population in the state; the office puts the 2026 figure at 153.

In April 2026 the county council approved 22 more deputies over six years, funded by a 0.1 percent criminal justice sales tax, with recruitment beginning that summer.

This matters to off-duty work because in a thin agency, overtime and outside work compete for the same finite hours — and the rule that a deputy reports for duty regardless of an off-duty commitment is not theoretical when the roster is short.

What this page cannot tell you

No rates, no minimum hours, no coordinator, no scheduling system, no list of prohibited employers — none of that appears in either published document.

Nor does the deputies' guild agreement, which is where the terms for most sworn staff would be found. What is published is the commanders' agreement and a county-wide HR policy, and this page is built from exactly that.

Common questions

What does Clark County require before approving off-duty work?

A signed indemnity from the employer. It is the only agency in this section that makes the officer obtain one before approval.

Does approval have to be in writing?

Yes, in writing and in advance of the work.

How large is the agency?

153 commissioned officers, which is among the lowest law-enforcement staffing per head of population in Washington.