New Hampshire State Police and outside work

The permission is one sentence long

Article XXI of the agreement between the State and the New Hampshire Troopers Association says this and no more: the Employer shall continue its policy to permit outside employment by members, subject to such limitations and requirements as the Division may deem necessary for the best interest of the State.

That is a deliberate arrangement rather than a gap. The contract preserves the existence of the permission — the Division cannot simply stop allowing outside work — while leaving every limit on it to Division policy, which is not part of the agreement and is not read on this page.

Pennsylvania State Police put their rules in an administrative regulation; New Hampshire bargains the principle and delegates the detail.

Every trooper is paid the same for a detail

Where the agreement does get specific is Article VIII, Traffic Control Duty. Employees may work approved construction and overtime details on off-duty hours in accordance with Division policy, and are compensated at one and a half times the rate of pay for a Trooper II at maximum step.

Not their own rate. A trooper in their first year and a twenty-year veteran are paid the same for the same detail, because the rate is pegged to a fixed rank and step rather than to the individual. Augusta, Maine does the same thing from the other direction by pegging its detail rate to the top detective step.

There is a four-hour guarantee, with time beyond four hours paid in half-hour increments.

And the guarantee carries a condition worth knowing. A trooper canceled with less than twelve hours' notice is paid the four-hour minimum — provided the person or entity who ordered the detail can be billed by the State for those four hours. The trooper's protection depends on the State being able to recover the money.

The assigned car, and your own

The agreement does not address using a cruiser on a detail. What it does set out is the one off-duty use it permits: travel to and from fitness facilities, with prior approval from the Department, within the trooper's jurisdiction, immediately before or after an assigned shift, only on duty days, and in uniform of the day. Troopers may not use an assigned vehicle for personal use on non-duty days, and the travel time is uncompensated.

For a trooper's own car on State business, the agreement pegs reimbursement to the maximum rate then allowable by the Internal Revenue Service, with changes applied prospectively — a different choice from Florida, whose statutory rate has not moved since 2006.

What this page cannot tell you

This is a collective agreement, and it points at a Division policy it does not contain. Nothing here says who approves an outside job, whether there is an hour cap, what kinds of employer are off limits, what may be worn, or who carries the liability.

Those answers sit in the Division's own rules, and this page has not read them.

Vehicles

This policy does not deal with vehicles — it does not say whether an agency car may be taken on an off-duty job, or what one costs. That is a gap in the document, not a prohibition.

Common questions

Can New Hampshire troopers work outside employment?

Yes. The collective agreement preserves the Division's policy of permitting it, subject to whatever limitations and requirements the Division considers necessary in the best interest of the State.

What does a New Hampshire trooper detail pay?

One and a half times the rate of pay for a Trooper II at maximum step — the same for every trooper regardless of rank or seniority — with a four-hour guarantee.

What happens if a detail is canceled?

Canceled with less than twelve hours' notice, the trooper is paid the four-hour minimum, provided the person or entity that ordered the detail can be billed by the State for those four hours.