New Castle County Police and extra-duty work

One ceiling, covering everything

Outside employment and extra-duty assignments are counted together against a single ceiling of 24 hours a week, measured Monday morning to Sunday midnight. Not 24 hours of details on top of another job — 24 hours of everything.

For comparison: Virginia Beach allows 68 hours, Orlando 72, Florida Highway Patrol 72. New Castle County allows 24.

Lower numbers do exist — Lakewood caps extra duty at 18 hours a week, and Orange County, New York, Los Angeles, Stanford, Portland and Johns Creek all sit at 20. But those are ceilings on ONE KIND of work: an agency that caps private employment at 20 often runs its own detail programme outside that number, so the real total is higher. New Castle County counts everything against the one figure, which is what makes 24 a harder limit than it first looks.

There is a separate daily limit. An officer working their regular 8, 10 or 11.25-hour shift may add extra duty on the same day, but must not exceed 17.25 hours in any single calendar day running midnight to midnight.

An administrator monitors the totals, but the policy is careful to say this does not relieve the officer of responsibility for staying under the limit. Going over without the Chief's consent draws progressive discipline. The Chief can lift it where the division's interests require.

Approval, and a renewal date all of its own

The Chief of Police must authorise all outside employment in advance and in writing. The request form names the employer, the supervisor, the address, the job title, the nature of the work, the start date and the hours the officer expects to work each week. Self-employment goes through the same form.

Authorisation runs for one year starting 1 July, with a new form due by 30 June. The files are purged annually on that date, and an officer without a current form on file is not authorized to work at all.

That is a fifth different answer to the renewal question across these pages — Seattle uses the hire date, New Orleans the officer's birth month, Virginia Beach 31 December, San Jose the appraisal date, and New Castle County the start of the fiscal year.

Any change in the employment's status has to be reported in writing on the officer's first working day after it happens. Extra-duty work additionally requires completing field training and the vendor's online training first.

This agency350

Median of the 131,459

Largest here10,744

One of 13 sheriffs' offices here with a traced figure. Each number is what that agency itself publishes, so some are authorized strength and some are actual headcount — useful for scale, not an exact comparison.

What the customer is not

Most policies imply the relationship. This one states it, and the wording is worth having.

Customers have no authority over police, communications, emergency medical services or emergency management personnel. Officers working an extra-duty assignment are not, and shall not be considered, employees or agents of the customer. A customer may identify general duties to be performed — and their rules never supersede county policy, departmental policy, or any local, state or federal law.

The department also protects itself commercially. Approval will not be granted where staffing is inadequate, where an event is potentially compromising, or for customers with invoices more than sixty days unpaid unless payment terms have been agreed.

Rates are set annually by the county's chief financial officer from actual costs. A two-hour minimum is billed for every assignment, and a customer canceling within two hours of the start still pays it — with the scheduled officer paid for those two hours.

And no officer ever collects payment at the job site, in cash or by cheque.

If you are hurt, you are on your own

New Castle County answers the coverage question as bluntly as any agency here, and the answer is no.

The county has no obligation to provide workers' compensation for outside employment, because that work is for the sole benefit of the individual employee rather than the county. Officers working outside employment will not be entitled to any workers' compensation benefits for an injury sustained doing it.

An injury still has to be reported through the same procedure as one occurring on duty — the on-duty shift commander is notified on the officer's next working day and it is documented. But an injury that stops the officer performing their primary role is handled as a non-duty-related injury.

The policy closes the point with a sentence that sums up the arrangement: an officer maintaining outside employment does so as an individual and not as an employee of the Division of Police.

What is prohibited, and when

The same list governs both categories: direct sale or distribution of alcohol and controlled medication, bail bond agencies, investigative work for insurance companies, private investigation, private guard services, collection agencies, investigative work for attorneys, weapons sales, adult entertainment, and dispensaries.

Status bars are extensive. No work while on sick leave, family medical leave (intermittent leave excepted), military leave, administrative leave, light or modified duty, absent through injury, or in any way not fit for full duty. Extra duty adds suspension, a restricted assignment, and being on call and paid for it.

For extra duty the sick-leave bar is defined precisely: it applies where sick leave was used for an entire shift within the 24 hours before the assignment starts.

Rank matters too. No member above senior lieutenant may work extra duty, with exceptions only where exigent circumstances leave nobody else available — and the approval is filed.

On the job, and getting out of one

Every officer carries an 800MHz portable radio, all issued equipment and their body-worn camera. They log in with dispatch at the start giving their identifier, location and duration, stay reachable, and log off at the end. Poor reception means phoning in and leaving a number.

The patrol uniform of the day is required — no dressing down and no specialist unit uniforms unless the assignment specifically asks for them. Officers use their assigned vehicle unless a supervisor approves otherwise. A canine handler whose canine has not been requested works in patrol uniform, without the dog, in a marked pool car with a prisoner partition.

Canceling is deliberately difficult. An officer contacts the scheduling vendor by phone, and remains responsible for the job until another officer takes it. If nobody does, they work it. Sudden illness or emergency routes to the administrator, who will push an emergency notification — but the obligation to find a replacement or appear stays with the original officer.

Supervisors, professional standards and the duty officer run random checks on extra-duty jobs, including verifying through dispatch that officers are signing in and out at the times they should be.

Watched while you work

The oversight around an assignment is unusually thorough, and it is worth knowing because it shapes what the job actually feels like.

Every officer carries an 800 MHz portable radio, all issued equipment and their division-issued body-worn camera. At the start of the assignment they log in with the county's dispatch center giving their identification number, the location and the duration, and stay available on the radio; they log off at the end. Where reception is poor, the officer telephones instead and leaves a number.

Then the checking. Random checks of extra-duty jobs are made by the Professional Standards Unit, on-duty supervisors or the staff duty officer, including quality-control reviews to confirm the customer is getting the service requested. Separately, supervisors may check through dispatch that officers are signing in and out at the right times.

It cuts the other way too: if an assignment is not sufficiently staffed, a patrol shift supervisor or the staff duty officer can assign on-duty officers to help rather than leave one officer exposed.

Two rules about your own squad and your own week

Two smaller provisions decide more about a month than their length suggests.

First: officers may work most extra duty on regular days off or approved vacation days, but are prohibited from working patrol extra-duty assignments on or with their own assigned squad while using approved leave. Taking the day off and then working alongside the shift you would have been on is out.

Second: the scheduling system carries a standing rule of one job every 24 hours, which the extra-duty administrator may override only to fill an emergency vacancy. So the ceiling is not just weekly hours — there is a rhythm built into the booking system itself.

Abuse of the selection process, or using another member's credentials to log into the system, brings progressive discipline up to suspension from extra duty altogether.

Vehicles

Officers work extra duty in their assigned vehicle unless a supervisor approves otherwise.

Every agency here, side by side on vehicles →

Common questions

How many hours a week can a New Castle County officer work?

Twenty-four, and the unusual part is the scope: outside employment and extra duty count against the one ceiling rather than each having its own. No more than 17.25 hours in a single calendar day.

Is an officer covered by workers' compensation on an off-duty job?

No. The policy states plainly that it is not provided, which is the opposite of what several other agencies here promise.

Can the customer direct the officer?

No. The customer buys the presence, not the authority: they have no command over how the officer performs police duties.