The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and off-duty work

Where the rules actually live

JSO publishes policy more openly than most agencies its size — its written orders sit on a public open-data portal with no login — but only seven of them are posted there, and the secondary employment order is not one of them.

The numbers are in the collective bargaining agreements instead, and the City of Jacksonville publishes those in full. Article 32 of the officers-through-sergeants agreement and Article 31 of the lieutenants and captains agreement cover the same ground in almost identical words. That is worth knowing on its own: in Jacksonville, rank does not change the off-duty rules. A captain works under the same monthly cap and the same rest requirement as a first-year officer.

Both agreements run to 30 September 2027, so nothing here is a guess about which version is current.

The hours, counted by the month

The ceiling is 120 hours of off-duty work a month. Almost every other agency in this section counts by the week, which makes Jacksonville unusual — a heavy fortnight is not a breach here so long as the month comes out under the line.

Those 120 hours may be supplemented by annual or compensatory leave, and the Sheriff or a designee can waive the limit at their discretion.

Two harder rules sit underneath it. An eight-hour rest period is mandatory between the end of one tour of duty and the beginning of the next — and the agreement says that rest period applies on days off as well, so a job cannot be wedged against the start of a shift after a rest day either. And in the 24-hour period surrounding a scheduled workday, total work may not exceed 16 hours.

The 16-hour figure is the same one Dallas uses, but Dallas measures it as a rolling 24 hours. Jacksonville anchors it to the day you are rostered.

Coming back from leave

This is the provision most likely to catch someone out, because it is a waiting period rather than a same-day bar.

An officer will not work secondary employment until they have been off duty for two regular days, or have worked one day following sick leave, bereavement leave, injury on duty, light duty, suspension — with or without pay — or administrative leave.

Two things stand out. Bereavement leave is in that list, which is rare; and so is suspension with pay, so an officer on paid administrative leave during an investigation is not picking up details in the meantime. Compare Dallas, where the bar runs 24 hours from the beginning of the shift that was missed, or Detroit, where the rule is simply no work on a day sick leave was used. Jacksonville asks for a full day back at work first.

The agreement also states plainly that employees may not engage in secondary employment while in a non-duty status.

What it pays, and the floor that can move

The agreement sets minimum hourly rates: $50 for officers and $65 for supervisors. Those are reviewed on or about 1 October each year, and may be looked at more often if needed.

The interesting part is what happens underneath the floor. A lower rate may be agreed — but only in writing, and only by the Secondary Employment Unit commanding officer together with the F.O.P. president. Neither side can drop it alone. Very few agencies write a minimum rate into anything at all; Seattle is the other one in this section that does. Fewer still bargain the route by which it can be lowered.

Cancellation carries a cost for the customer, not the officer: a job canceled within 48 hours still pays a minimum of three hours, and it is paid by whoever hired the officer. If that fee is not paid, the employer's right to hire JSO officers at all can be revoked.

The administrative fee

The agency takes a fee on top of the officer's rate, and the wording of it matters: $5.50 an hour for each hour paid, not necessarily worked. So the three-hour cancellation minimum carries a fee too. Part-hours are prorated.

The fee rises to $7.50 an hour for work where the police vehicle is used with the engine running and emergency equipment in use for the majority of the assignment — traffic control during road construction projects and lane closures. That higher rate expressly does not apply to police escorts.

Payment is on a monthly clock. All fees for a month are due to JSO by the 10th of the following month. More than two weeks late brings discipline, which can include losing secondary employment privileges; intentionally evading the payment brings discipline and possible loss outright.

Fifty cents of every hour

Of that administrative fee, 50 cents an hour goes to the F.O.P. Foundation Trust Fund — written into the agreement, not into policy.

The fund is for training F.O.P. members, contributions to other local non-profit organisations, and the Fallen Officer Relief and Welfare Fund. In exchange, the City may inspect and audit the fund's financial records on request.

Nothing else in this section routes part of an off-duty fee to the union's own charitable foundation, with audit rights attached as the price of it. If you work details in Jacksonville, a small slice of every hour funds that.

How the privilege is lost

JSO treats secondary employment as something to be taken away, and it says so in more than one document.

The Code of Conduct sets a ladder that runs alongside ordinary discipline rather than instead of it: a first violation of the secondary employment order costs two days of privileges, then seven, then 14, then 30, and after that a period set by the Commander of Special Events. "Secondary Employment Violation" is also a charge in its own right in the disciplinary guide, with a range reaching termination.

It is used as currency for unrelated failings, too. A corrections member who misses a scheduled court function or a wellness appointment loses either personal electronic device privileges for 30 days or secondary employment for 14 — where a police member loses the take-home vehicle instead. And failing the annual physical ability test costs police-related secondary employment until the test is passed, after a 30-day grace period. Fitness as a condition of working details appears nowhere else here.

Officers on paid parental leave may not work off-duty or overtime assignments during that leave.

What state law adds

One section of Florida law sits underneath every sheriff's office in the state, and it answers the question the agreement does not: what happens if you are hurt.

Section 30.2905 says a sheriff may run an off-duty programme — permissive, not required, which is why Florida offices differ so widely from one another. Jacksonville's answer to that discretion is unusual: it bargained the terms into a contract rather than leaving them to policy.

The statute makes the off-duty employer responsible for a deputy's acts and omissions, including workers' compensation. Then it takes most of that back. A deputy injured while enforcing the criminal, traffic or penal laws of Florida is regarded as working on duty — and the law defines that phrase to include providing security, patrol or traffic direction for a private or public employer. Read against the work Jacksonville officers actually do off duty, that covers most of it: the road-construction traffic post with the car running is squarely inside the definition.

It also means no private security license is needed. Off-duty deputies are exempt from the chapter 493 regime that covers guards, patrol services and private investigators, with no conditions attached — where Texas grants the same exemption but hangs four conditions on it.

None of that is Jacksonville's doing, and none of it can be bargained away. It applies whether you work in Duval County or the smallest rural county in the state.

What this page cannot tell you

The agreement sets the hours and the money. It does not say which employers are off limits, what you may wear, when a patrol car may be used, or how jobs are handed out — all of that sits in the General Orders, as amended by the Sheriff's Direct Review Committee, and those restrictions apply so far as they are not inconsistent with the agreement.

The secondary employment order itself is not published, so the answer to "can I work this particular job?" is not on the open web. JSO does say publicly that requests from the public are managed through an outside scheduling company, that the work is voluntary, that approval must come first and the officer must be in good standing, and that the rate can move when demand outruns the number of officers willing to work.

One right is worth knowing: an officer denied secondary employment in violation of the applicable General Orders may grieve that denial through Step 4 of the grievance procedure, and the Step 4 decision is final.