Murray City Police and outside employment

Four terms, and why they matter

Murray separates the work more finely than most. Outside employment is any paid work for another employer, including self-employment. Outside overtime is work for an outside organisation within the city that is requested and scheduled through the department, so the department gets reimbursed for wages and benefits. Extra-duty employment is work conditioned on the use of law enforcement powers. Regular off-duty employment is work that is not.

Extra duty runs on contract: a government, commercial or non-profit entity agrees terms with the agency for uniformed officers able to exercise police powers. The permitted services are listed — traffic control and pedestrian safety, crowd control, security and protection of life and property, and routine law enforcement for public authorities.

Everything needs the Chief's written approval first, on an application routed through the immediate supervisor. Working without it, or working something the policy prohibits, is grounds for discipline.

Twenty-four, and sixty-four

Two ceilings, and they work together. An officer may work a maximum of 24 hours of regular off-duty or extra-duty employment in a calendar week — or a total of 64 hours in combination with regular duty.

So the outside work is capped whatever else is happening, and the total is capped too. An officer on a full week of regular duty has far less than 24 hours of headroom.

An officer engaged in any off-duty work remains subject to call-out in an emergency and may be expected to leave the job.

A permit you can appeal

Approved permits run to the end of the calendar year unless the permit says otherwise, and renewal means a fresh application.

What is unusual here is the process when the answer is no. An officer refused must be given a written reason at the time of the denial. They may then appeal in writing to the Chief within ten days — and if that appeal fails, they may file a grievance.

Most policies in this section make approval discretionary and stop there. Murray builds in a route to challenge it.

Revocation has stated grounds too: performance declining to a level needing improvement, revocation as a term of sustained discipline, conduct conflicting with policy, or an injury leaving the officer unable to work at full capacity.

What is prohibited

Establishments selling pornographic material or providing services of a sexual nature. Any business whose principal trade is the sale and on-site consumption, manufacture or transport of alcohol.

Process serving, vehicle repossession, bill collecting, towing — anything where police authority might be used to collect money or goods for a private purpose. Personnel investigations for the private sector, or any job requiring access to police records as a condition of employment.

Wearing the police uniform for tasks that are not police work. Assisting case preparation for the defense in a criminal matter, or either side in a civil one. Working for a business or labor group on strike. And any occupation regulated or licensed by the police agency itself.

Officers in undercover or covert assignments may not work anything that could reasonably reveal their law enforcement status, absent an emergency or a division commander's authorisation.

Department equipment and resources are off limits entirely — including using the officer's position to reach official records or databases, whether the department's or another agency's.

Injured, and on light duty

Murray handles the awkward case directly. An officer with outside employment who is placed on disability leave or light duty must tell their supervisor in writing within five days whether they intend to keep working it.

The supervisor then reviews the outside duties against any doctor's orders and makes a recommendation. The permit can be revoked where the outside work is medically detrimental to recovery, where it demands the same physical ability the officer is currently unfit for on duty, or simply where the officer failed to give timely notice.

On return to full duty, the officer may ask in writing for the permit to be restored.

Who carries the risk

The employer's obligation is stated: a business hiring a Murray officer for off-duty work must comply with state and federal income reporting and withholding requirements for that officer's wages.

And the coverage answer is different in kind from most here. Where a city police officer exercises law enforcement authority in performing off-duty work, the officer and their actions are subject to the state's governmental immunity act and the city's retained risk.

So the protection attaches to the act rather than the job. Working as security, the officer is on their own. The moment they act as a police officer, the city's position follows them — the same logic Florida Highway Patrol applies to insurance, expressed through immunity instead.

Use of a city vehicle for either kind of off-duty work needs the Chief's approval, inside the city or out of it.