Florida Highway Patrol and off-duty work

Two words that mean different things

FHP draws a line most agencies blur, and getting it wrong is how officers end up filing the wrong request. Secondary employment is the broad term: work for any employer other than the state of Florida, including self-employment, whether or not policing is involved.

Off-duty police employment — abbreviated ODPE throughout the policy, and in conversation — is the narrower kind: work that entails the actual or potential use of police authority and requires police powers as a condition of the job. A traffic detail is ODPE. Running a landscaping business is secondary employment.

The two follow different approval routes, and most of the restrictions in the policy attach to ODPE specifically.

Getting approved

Approval is required before the start date, and both routes now run through SharePoint rather than paper.

Secondary employment that is not police work goes through the department's own SharePoint form and has to be renewed yearly. ODPE goes through the FHP system, and once approved it stands — a member only resubmits if their vehicle-use status changes, or to reinstate approval that has been suspended or withdrawn.

Captains and below request through their Troop Commander, or through the Bureau Commander of BCII for Troop Q. Majors and above go through their deputy director. Captains and above carry an extra step: beyond the standing approval, they need sign-off for each specific ODPE job, routed through their chief to a deputy director.

On the employer's side, a business wanting troopers submits a Request for Off-Duty Police Services to the Troop Commander for the area where the work happens, normally at least ten working days ahead. A Troop Commander can waive that notice in exigent circumstances, and has to note the date when they do.

The hour limits

This is the part worth knowing before you accept anything, because it is easy to breach by accident.

The weekly ceiling is 72 hours combined — regular scheduled duty, scheduled overtime, secondary employment and ODPE all counted together, across a workweek running Friday through Thursday. Three things are excluded from that count: court time falling outside your scheduled hours, unscheduled incident-related overtime such as an arrest at the end of a shift, and travel time to and from ODPE.

There is also a daily ceiling. No more than 16 hours in any 24-hour period, again counting duty, overtime, secondary employment and ODPE together. Ten-hour and twelve-hour shift assignments are bound by the same figure. Travel time coming back from an escort does count toward this one, even though it does not count toward the weekly cap.

Sick leave closes the door for a full day: a member who books off sick cannot work overtime or ODPE for the 24 hours starting with the shift they missed. The policy also says plainly that sick leave must not be used to free up hours for off-duty work, and that a pattern of it can cost you your approval.

Using a patrol car

Prior authorisation from a Troop or Bureau Commander, or a deputy director, is required. Once granted, use is limited to jobs within 40 miles of the member's county of assignment.

Escorts are the exception that proves the rule: an escort has to begin within that 40 miles, but may run beyond it.

Insurance is a condition, and the figures are specific: at least $200,000/$300,000 vehicle liability and $50,000 property damage, with proof filed before the work starts. The policy warns in capitals that commercial insurers cannot provide collision cover, and that a member may be held liable for damage to a state vehicle in a single-vehicle crash or one where they are at fault.

Mileage is reimbursed to the state, reported on a monthly form, and the policy is explicit that the intent is to capture any extra mileage that off-duty work causes.

What will not be approved

The prohibited categories are listed, and they are the ones that recur across American agencies: debt collection, repossession, wrecker companies, bail bonding, private investigation and paralegal services, and adult entertainment.

Also refused is any work that would put a member in court against another law enforcement agency — preparing a case for the defense or a plaintiff.

Alcohol is handled with a distinction rather than a ban. Employment at a business whose regular and primary trade is selling alcohol for drinking on the premises is prohibited. Where alcohol is incidental to what the place is for — a stadium, a civic center — approval can be granted case by case.

The 2024 revision added polling locations: no secondary employment or ODPE at a polling place while voting is under way, early voting included.

If you are still on probation

Members on initial probation are generally barred from ODPE, with a carve-out: once past Phase V of field training and released to solo patrol, traffic-related work is permitted, and the probationary trooper tells the on-duty supervisor when they are working it.

What counts as traffic-related is spelled out. Traffic control and direction, traffic security for utility crews, and jobs at Turnpike service plazas are in. Retail, restaurants, malls, homeowners' associations, neighbourhood patrol and courtroom or building security are out.

Anyone hired with two or more years of prior law enforcement experience is exempt from the probationary restriction once they have completed Phase V and gone solo.

Performance closes the door too. An evaluation rating below 3.0 with a corrective action plan in place means no off-duty work until the rating recovers.

The coverage question, answered plainly

Most agencies leave this to be discovered. FHP puts it in writing, and the answer is one troopers should read twice.

State benefits and protections — liability insurance and workers' compensation for work-related injury or disability — do not apply while a member is performing ODPE in the private sector. Obtaining cover, whether from the off-duty employer or privately, is the member's own responsibility.

There is one restoring condition, and it is narrow: cover returns if, during that private employment, it becomes necessary to use police authority or perform law enforcement services the member would normally provide on duty.

The policy pairs that with an obligation running the other way. A member in uniform working ODPE is indistinguishable from an on-duty officer, so they are required to act on serious criminal or traffic offences occurring in front of them, on life-threatening situations, and on other pressing public needs — and a member responding in those circumstances is treated as acting in an official capacity.

Reporting

Hours and mileage are reported daily through the mobile Daily Activity Report, with a monthly ODPE return due by the fifth calendar day after the month ends, listing every period worked, the employer, the location, start and finish times, total hours and vehicle mileage.

Breaches cost approval on a published scale: a first violation in any twelve-month period suspends off-duty privileges for ten days, a second for thirty, a third for six months and a fourth for a year — separate from any other discipline.

The policy closes by saying that off-duty police employment is not a right but a privilege recognised in the relevant collective bargaining agreements.