Fairfax County deputies and off-duty employment

Not the police department

Fairfax County has two large sworn agencies, and this page is about the Sheriff's Office — courts, the adult detention center and civil process — not the county police department, which is written up separately.

Its standard operating procedure 027 governs off-duty employment and is published in full. The version on the county website carries an effective date of October 1999 and a revision in March 2005, though it references arrangements introduced later, so parts have plainly been touched since.

Three caps, not one

The hour limits are the most granular in this section, because they depend on what kind of day it is.

No full-time deputy may work more than 4 hours at an off-duty job on any regular work day. On a regular day off the ceiling rises to 12 hours. And across a whole County pay period, the total may not exceed 36 hours.

That structure does something a single weekly number cannot: it protects the day before a shift specifically, rather than trusting the week to average out. Four hours is barely half a detail. If you want a full day of off-duty work in Fairfax, it has to fall on a rest day.

There is a separate, oddly specific rule in the same spirit: a deputy may drive a school bus as off-duty employment only on scheduled days off, and not within four hours of working any shift.

A floor that ignores rank

The office sets a minimum salary of $35.00 per hour for deputies in off-duty law enforcement employment, and states plainly that the rate applies regardless of rank — with an exception for contracts with certain government agencies that may require a lower figure.

Compare UAB, where the price of an hour rises step by step from officer to corporal to sergeant, or Palm Beach, where deputy, sergeant and lieutenant each have their own number. Fairfax sets one floor and lets rank make no difference to it.

Off-duty law enforcement work is also geographically fenced: it is allowed only within the service area — Fairfax County, the cities of Fairfax and Falls Church, and the towns of Herndon and Vienna — unless extended by contract with another government agency.

Telling another agency you are there

This is the provision found nowhere else. Every time a deputy works law enforcement off-duty employment, they must contact the police department's desk officer in the sub-district where the job is, give their location and working hours, and ask that the on-duty police supervisor be told.

Not their own supervisor — the other agency's. In a county where the police department handles patrol, an armed deputy standing at a business is someone the police shift ought to know about, and the SOP makes that a per-job obligation rather than a courtesy.

Deputies must also have direct access to a telephone on site or use their assigned radio. And any use of force at all, or any exercise of arrest powers, goes to a supervisor as soon as practical with a written report through the chain within 24 hours.

Injuries, and what the leave costs you

Injuries on off-duty law enforcement work are documented exactly like on-the-job injuries, using workers' compensation paperwork, and may be compensable — Risk Management decides case by case.

But the next line is the one to notice: the employee must use sick, annual or compensatory leave when absent because of an off-duty employment injury. The cover may come; the time off comes out of your own bank meanwhile.

A deputy sued over the exercise of law enforcement powers while working off duty should notify the Sheriff, and coverage may be available through the state's risk management division.

Courtesy liaison, and the uniform you may not wear

The SOP carves out an arrangement other agencies leave undefined: a deputy living at a property as a "courtesy liaison". It counts as off-duty employment and needs the same permission.

The conditions are strict. No agency uniform or anything identifying them as a deputy. No law enforcement activity except in an emergency, and only where they actually hold authority. Where they do not hold authority, they must tell the landlord in writing that their powers are limited, and file proof of that with the request.

And the office disclaims it: Fairfax County Sheriff's Office is not liable for injury, damage or civil action arising from courtesy liaison duties, and deputies are encouraged to obtain workers' compensation and liability cover through the landlord.

It is the clearest example in this section of an agency permitting something while refusing to stand behind it.

Approval, and the ten-day clock

Permits run one year from the Sheriff's approval, and renewal is the deputy's job, at least 10 days before expiry. The Sheriff is the final approving authority for every request, whatever the rank of the applicant.

Supervisors are told to move the paperwork within 10 working days, and if they cannot, the deputy is owed an explanation — a rare deadline running in the employee's favour. A recommendation to refuse must carry written reasons.

Grounds for refusal include the deputy's sick leave record, work that would need access to police records, quasi-police functions such as debt collection, repossession, bail bonds, private investigation involving politics or divorce, claims adjusting or guarding a labor strike; bartending; bodyguard work; and any security role at a place whose primary business is alcohol. Deputies may not hold a private detective's license at all.

Two smaller rules round it out: no deputy may act as an employment agent, taking payment for finding off-duty jobs for colleagues; and supervisors must show no favouritism in leave, schedules or assignments toward someone they share off-duty work with.

What this page cannot tell you

The SOP does not say who coordinates jobs day to day, what the office charges an employer above the deputy's $35, or how details are advertised.

And its published date is old. The structure is unlikely to have changed — the caps and the service-area rule are woven through it — but any figure should be confirmed with the office before anyone relies on it.

Common questions

How many hours can a Fairfax deputy work off duty?

Four hours on a work day and twelve on a day off — three separate caps keyed to the kind of day.

Is there a minimum rate?

Thirty-five dollars an hour, the same for every rank.

Is there anything to do before starting a job?

A check-in with the agency whose jurisdiction the work is in, which is unusual: most agencies only require checking in with their own supervisor.