Columbus Police and off-duty work

Two directives, and the line between them

Columbus publishes two separate documents, and knowing which one applies decides which form you file. Directive 9.15, Off-Duty Employment covers work done for wages or anything of value, in self-employment or for anyone other than the Division, that is independent of police authority. The directive's own examples are owning rental property, working as a realtor, and working as a consultant, independent trainer or educator.

Directive 9.16, Special Duty covers uniformed or plain-clothed work that evolves directly from the authority an officer holds by being sworn — and, unusually, City overtime is folded into the same document and the same office.

Most agencies in this section run both kinds through one policy and one form. Columbus cross-references the two directives against each other instead. Both approvals are requested annually in January, and again whenever the work changes.

There is no hour limit

Neither directive sets a weekly or a daily ceiling. That is genuinely unusual here: Baltimore stacks four separate limits, Georgia caps a workweek at 64 hours, New Castle County at 24.

What Columbus writes instead is a performance test. Personnel shall not engage in off-duty employment or special duty to the extent that it impairs performance in their regularly assigned duties, and supervisors shall monitor subordinates' on-duty performance to work out whether it is being affected, then take corrective action as needed.

There are hard stops elsewhere. No off-duty work while relieved of assignment, on restricted duty, or marked off regular duty through illness or injury, without prior written permission from a deputy chief. And special duty is closed to anyone who has not finished field training.

The practical difference is that a Columbus officer cannot count hours and know they are compliant. The test is judgement rather than arithmetic, applied by a supervisor watching how you work.

The office that hands out the work

Every request for special duty is coordinated through the Special Duty Office or an approved special duty coordinator. Officers may not solicit special duty work, for themselves or for anyone else, and the office will not take a telephone request from an officer to fill in the form for them.

Jobs are filled first-come, first-served. Officers can see what is open and apply through an electronic management system, from a Division-issued device. City overtime runs through the same office and is distributed fairly and equitably; officers may not accept it directly from another City agency.

Accepting a job carries an obligation. Notify the contact person promptly, report to the site and do the work — and if you accept a job and then cannot work it, finding the replacement is yours to do, not the employer's.

Work stays inside Columbus jurisdiction unless the Chief approves otherwise in writing, and the mutual aid requirements are met.

What it pays, and what you have to report

An officer who arrives at a special duty job is entitled to a minimum three-hour show-up fee, paid by the employer, whether the work happens or is canceled on arrival. Employers are told about this when the request comes in. It does not apply where the officer fails to complete three hours for a reason that is not the employer's fault, such as illness or a court appearance.

There is a floor under the rate. Officers may not work special duty for less than the pay established for their rank, with two exceptions: police services volunteered to charitable causes with a deputy chief's approval, and sergeants and lieutenants taking non-supervisory jobs at the officer rate where too few officers are willing to work them. That second exception does not relieve a supervisor of taking supervisory action if the need arises on the job.

The provision found nowhere else in this section runs the other way: an officer paid more than the established rate for their rank must email the Special Duty Office and report the amount. Most agencies police the bottom of the rate. Columbus asks to be told about the top of it too.

Nobody may take a fee, commission, rebate or kickback from another officer for providing, coordinating or locating special duty work, and both directives ban running or drawing income from a business whose primary purpose is coordinating staffing or equipment for it. Supervision is bought by ratio: one sergeant hired for every three to six officers, and one lieutenant for three or more sergeants.

Bars are allowed, but inspected first

San Jose and Philadelphia handle alcohol venues by banning the work outright. Columbus permits it and puts a gate in front of it.

Before anyone works a liquor establishment, the location has to be approved by the Patrol Operations Subdivision Deputy Chief. A zone lieutenant physically inspects the premises, confirms the liquor, dance hall, alarm user and arcade permits are current, explains the Division's rules to the employer and the owner or manager in person, and asks the PACT Unit whether there have been sustained liquor violations, show bar activity or other vice at that address in the past six months. The findings go up the chain in a letter.

Once approved, the conditions are specific. Officers work in uniform. They work the parking lot or outside areas only — and the directive says plainly that patios where alcohol is consumed do not count as outside. A minimum of two officers. They enter the building when assistance is requested and normal police response is appropriate, not otherwise. No working as an ID checker or bouncer, and no venue that employs armed private security. Any action taken inside or around the place is reported to the Communications Bureau so it is documented.

A show bar is defined with a six-month lookback: anywhere nude, semi-nude or erotic dancing or other lewd activity has occurred in that window, where the establishment sanctioned or provided it, including amateur contests and one-off appearances. Show bars are barred, and so are raves.

Living where you work

The courtesy-officer arrangement has its own name here — a special duty residence, meaning a home an officer agrees to live in and provide police services at, in exchange for reduced or free rent, association fees or similar.

It needs the deputy chief's approval before you work or live there, and it is renewed each January along with everything else.

Then comes a condition that appears in no other policy we have read: an officer may not work or live at more than one special duty residence, nor have another residence. Orlando asks for the lease on file. Georgia draws the line at whether a duty is attached to the discount. Columbus requires that this is simply where you live.

An officer placed on restricted duty cannot work a special duty residence, and has to notify the employer and make arrangements until they are back on full duty.

If you are hurt, it depends what you were doing

The coverage question is answered by the act, not by the job. An officer injured while working special duty and not performing a police-related duty files a workers' compensation claim through that employer, and is told not to file it through the Division.

An officer injured while performing a police-related duty files through the City of Columbus.

The directive adds a line that most do not: officers should make their special duty employer aware of the rule. It is the same logic Florida Highway Patrol and Murray apply, turned into a filing instruction and a conversation the officer is expected to have before anything goes wrong.

What the badge cannot be turned into

The off-duty directive spends most of its length on conflict of interest, and its prohibitions are worth knowing even for officers who never work a detail.

No compensation from any source other than the Division for testimony in a criminal or civil case involving the City of Columbus, or for testimony arising from anything done in the course of assigned duties. An officer may be paid as an expert witness in non-criminal cases that do not involve the City and are not adverse to another law enforcement agency — and may not prepare for that testimony, or give it, while on duty.

No law enforcement database may be searched, copied, shared or forwarded in connection with off-duty work, except as that database's own administrative rules allow.

Off-duty work is barred at a show bar, anywhere operating in violation of federal, state or local law, any entity with a pending or sustained liquor violation, anywhere the officer would work inside a liquor establishment, and any liquor establishment employing armed private security. Also barred: businesses whose primary trade is sexually-oriented material or nude performances. Deviating from any of those needs the Chief of Police. And an officer may not hold a liquor permit at all.