NYPD officers and off duty employment

Two systems, and they answer differently

The first line of Procedure 205-40 does the most important work: it regulates off duty employment except that performed with the Paid Detail Unit.

So New York runs two parallel arrangements. Paid details — the uniformed jobs a business books through the department — sit under their own rules. Everything else an officer does for money off duty, from guarding a warehouse to practising law, runs through this procedure. It is eleven pages long and it is mostly a list of things you may not do.

That split explains the tone. Because the department already has a channel for uniformed work, 205-40 can afford to be severe about private employment — and it is.

This page covers both. The private side comes first, because it is where most of the rules live. The paid detail system follows, and on the question that matters most to an officer — who pays the lawyer — the two systems answer in opposite directions.

Twenty hours, and the three before your tour

The ceiling is twenty hours each week, except when the work is performed during a vacation period or on terminal leave. That is among the tightest in this section, and it applies to every rank.

Then a rule with no equivalent anywhere else here: off duty employment may not be performed in the three hours immediately before a regular tour of duty. Other agencies mandate rest between jobs and hope the arithmetic works. New York simply fences the run-up to the shift.

A member on approved Family Medical Leave who works off duty is held to the same twenty hours. And work is prohibited outright while a member is on sick report, sick leave or disability — with excessive sick leave itself listed as cause to revoke permission already granted.

Two situations reverse the usual rule and allow work without prior approval: during a period of suspension without pay, and while on continuous vacation or terminal leave after filing for retirement. Even then the member remains a member, and every prohibition still applies.

This agency33,721

Median of the 202,234

Largest of the 20 city departments 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.

Not in your own precinct

Off duty employment is prohibited in the precinct to which the member is assigned. A member in a command covering several precincts may work within that area, but only where it would create no conflict of interest or corruption hazard — the procedure gives the example plainly, the member's ability to provide off duty services while on duty.

The rule follows officers into their own businesses too. Under the watchguard regime, a client's premises may not be in the member's precinct, and if the job is protecting a person, that person may not live in the precinct either.

It is a different instinct from most agencies here, which worry about the type of work. New York worries about proximity: the risk it names is an officer policing the place that pays them.

In security work, you are not a police officer

This is the passage worth the visit, and it is the most explicit statement of its kind in the section.

A member accepting private security work, by virtue of that employment, relinquishes the power and authority conferred by the laws of the State of New York as a police officer. When an officer makes an arrest in furtherance of the private employer's interest, they are acting primarily on behalf of that employer.

The practical instruction follows: members may not investigate crimes for private employers, and ordinarily should be the complainant and not the arresting officer in off duty situations such as trespass or burglary, unless the exigencies require otherwise. Chicago reaches the same destination by making the responding on-duty officer the arresting officer; New York gets there by telling the off-duty member what role to take.

The consequences are spelled out, and they apply to private employment only — a paid detail is answered differently, further down this page. In most instances a member doing private work will not receive legal representation or indemnification from the City, because those protections apply to acts within the scope of municipal employment. So the procedure recommends that members find out whether the private employer carries liability insurance covering the work — and makes it the member's own responsibility to see that the employer holds workers' compensation coverage for guards.

One sting in the tail: the City retains a claim on any workers' compensation monies that would duplicate paid sick leave it has provided.

Court time follows the same logic. Arraignments and follow-up appearances arising from off duty employment may not be performed on department time and no overtime may be claimed for them — and an integrity control officer audits overtime reports to check that none relate to off-duty security arrests.

The longest prohibitions list here

Some entries are familiar: process serving, investigative work, security consulting, burglar alarm and security system installation or repair, work for anyone the member knows has a criminal arrest record, and any job requiring the uniform or shield — which is reserved to the Paid Detail Unit.

Others are unmistakably New York. Prohibited: employment as a street vendor within the city; as a locksmith within the city; as a second hand dealer, except used cars, or one dealing in precious metals; anything involving horse racing — working, owning, driving, training, selling goods or services, or obtaining licences relating to race horses, tracks or firms dealing in racing; operating or holding a financial interest in an arcade, video or pinball game; guarding diplomatic personnel or premises; and employment by a foreign government.

Alcohol is handled with a fine edge. A member may not hold any position involving the manufacture, sale or recommendation of alcoholic beverages, and may not work in premises licensed by the State Liquor Authority — except where the alcohol is not handled by the member. Work is permitted in premises licensed to sell beer for consumption off the premises, which is to say supermarkets and grocery stores.

Also barred: probationary officers with less than a year's aggregate service who have not completed entry level training; holding office in a labor organisation or becoming involved in a strike; working for an organisation licensed or inspected by the Police Department; and any employment for a municipal entity other than New York City. Dual public employment elsewhere needs a Certification of Compatibility.

And a catch-all worth knowing: a request may be disapproved even where it breaches nothing on the list.

Books, films, and the rights you cannot sell

The procedure is unusually generous about writing and unusually firm about a related temptation.

Members may write fiction and non-fiction books and articles on their own time and be paid for it, subject to the rules on departmental information, filing an application to the extent they are paid. Members may also work as technical or background advisers to television and film productions, on a particular incident or a specialist field — with written approval from the Chief of Patrol through the Movie and Television Unit.

But: the sale of exclusive proprietary rights based on an individual's involvement in a particular incident is strictly prohibited. The procedure's own example is an Aviation Unit member who may consult on general technical matters or give background on an incident, but may not sell a production company the exclusive rights to their own role in it.

You can be paid for your expertise. You cannot sell your story.

If you are an attorney

A whole section governs members practising law off duty, and it closes doors most people would not think to close.

No representing private interests for compensation before any City agency, and no appearing anywhere on behalf of private interests in matters involving the City. No appearing as counsel against the City's interests in litigation. No serving as attorney or representing any party in negligence or criminal cases in state courts within the five boroughs, and no accepting referral fees for such cases.

And no representing a higher or lower ranking member of the service in their own command — because the Conflicts of Interest Board has held that a business or financial relationship exists when an attorney performs legal services whether or not they are paid.

How the application actually works

The paperwork is a chain, and the detail matters because approval is per job rather than per officer.

The member files an application naming the employer, the corporation's function, the specific duties, and the total hours to be worked each week — the form expressly forbids writing "varies" or "changes". The commanding officer interviews the applicant, confers with the immediate supervisor, and for security work sends it to the borough commander. Where the member is on modified assignment, the commanding officer must consult the Office of the First Deputy Commissioner.

The Employee Resources Section then checks it against the department's and the Board of Ethics' guidelines, assigns an Off Duty Work Number, and for security work requests a records check from the Intelligence Bureau — on the employer, and on the individual or premises to be protected.

Approval lasts twelve months, with renewal due at least ten days before expiry, and a fresh application is required for each extra job or change of job, even with the same employer. A disapproved application may be appealed. And a newly transferred member's existing approval is re-examined, because a new assignment can turn a clean job into a conflict.

The other system: paid details

Everything above is Procedure 205-40. The paid detail system is governed by a different document in a different manual — Administrative Guide 332-22 — and it works nothing like it.

A paid detail is a job a business books through the Department. The officer works it in the patrol uniform of the day, off duty, and is paid for it. The rule that joins the two systems is short: uniformed members are not authorized to work off duty in uniform other than on a paid detail administered by the Department. If the uniform is involved, it goes through the Paid Detail Unit or it does not happen.

Enrolment is a one-off rather than a job-by-job application. A member of the rank of captain or below files an enrolment application and participation agreement with their commanding officer, who checks eligibility, confers with the immediate supervisor and forwards the approved form with a signed W-9 to the Paid Detail Unit; the member then appears in person, off duty, to have an account opened on the internal assignment system.

Eligibility is narrower than the private side. A member must be on full duty status with no position limitations. Anyone designated Chronic Sick Category B, or on level two or three monitoring, is excluded. Probationary officers need at least one full year of service, counting time at the Academy. Captains need the approval of the Deputy Commissioner, Management and Budget. Members on military, educational or family leave are barred, and approval is withdrawn automatically on promotion or transfer.

On a paid detail, the City stands behind you

This is the reason the two systems are worth reading side by side.

Under 205-40, a member doing private security work relinquishes their police authority and in most instances gets no representation and no indemnity. Under the paid detail rules, the City of New York will represent an officer who is sued while working a paid detail — provided the officer's actions fall within section 50-K of the General Municipal Law. The stated conditions are that the officer was acting within the scope of their duty as a New York City police officer, was acting to further the interest of the municipality, and did not violate Department rules or regulations.

Same officer, same night, same uniform question — and the answer turns entirely on which channel the work came through. No other agency in this section contradicts itself so cleanly, and an officer who reads only one of the two documents will draw exactly the wrong conclusion about their own exposure.

Injury is treated more narrowly than liability. An injury on a paid detail is not line of duty unless it is sustained while the member is taking enforcement action, and line of duty status is refused where the member was not following Department guidelines or was injured doing non-enforcement work. Standing a post and turning an ankle is not the same as being hurt making an arrest.

The origin of all this is a 1998 opinion of the City's Conflicts of Interest Board, which allowed officers to work private security in uniform under a provision of the City Charter written for exactly that purpose. The Board approved it on stated conditions: the Unit would hold the lists, set the pay scale, charge the firms a fee no greater than its own expenses, and assign officers by list position with no input of their own.

Paid detail hours, and the gaps around your tour

The ceiling is again twenty hours a week, and this time there is a monthly figure alongside it: no more than eighty hours in a month. A single assignment may not run longer than ten hours. All of that applies during vacation as well — the private side's vacation exception has no counterpart here.

The three-hour rule reappears, with a second one behind it. A member may not work a paid detail within three hours of the start of their regularly scheduled tour, and may not work one within one hour of the end of it. Where a vendor asks a member to stay past the scheduled finish, the member may agree but is under no obligation — and even then may not run into that three-hour window or past the monthly eighty.

The proximity rule reappears too: paid details may not be worked within the geographical confines of the member's assigned command. Meal periods may not be taken in the first or last hour and a half of the assignment except in an emergency. Members may not request lost time in order to work one. And a member on regular sick report may not work a paid detail at all — including outside their tour and on a regular day off.

Department vehicles are not authorized on a paid detail, including for traveling to and from the vendor's location, and that applies to captains too.

Two supervisory pairings are kept apart on purpose: a commanding officer and executive officer may not work paid details at the same time, and neither may an integrity control officer and their assistant.

You are still a police officer on a paid detail

The private side tells a member what they stop being. The paid detail rules tell them what they remain.

Members work in the uniform of the day and are held to the ordinary appearance, uniform and equipment rules. The Department radio stays on, tuned to the proper frequency. Digital activity log entries are required at the start and end of the assignment, on any meal, and any time the member takes police action. And members are required to take proper police action, under the same law of arrest procedure that governs a tour.

Where an arrest happens, the member calls the patrol supervisor of the precinct of occurrence to the scene. As a rule the detail officer does not then process the arrest, unless directed by an on-duty supervisor or personally involved in the underlying incident — and any arrest processing that does fall to them is done on police overtime, not on the vendor's time. Anything needing the patrol supervisor's response requires a notification to the Paid Detail Unit, as does any injury taken while acting.

The paperwork is a three-part card. The member records their last and next scheduled tours on it, has it signed by a vendor representative at the end of the assignment, and the white copy goes to a designated supervisor, the blue to the vendor for payroll, the pink to the member. Preparing it improperly, or causing the vendor payment problems, can cost a member their eligibility.

Losing your place on the list

The enforcement side of the paid detail rules is mostly about turning up, and it is unusually specific.

An assignment may be canceled at less than 48 hours notice only for a police exigency — an arrest, court, a detail, mandatory training — or a sick report or documented emergency, and the Paid Detail Unit must be told, by voicemail out of hours. A supervisor then decides what documentation is needed, and the member comes off the eligibility list until it arrives. Failing to give timely notice, or not turning up without good cause, can mean suspension or removal from the programme.

The hardest line in the document is about swapping. Under no circumstances may a member switch an assignment or work one scheduled by another member: an assignment must be performed by the member who scheduled it. Breaching that brings immediate and indefinite suspension from the programme plus Department discipline.

Oversight runs through the same officers who audit everything else. The integrity control officer checks the intranet monthly for members' paid detail activity, samples it against roll calls and overtime records, and folds it into the command's overtime self-inspection. The platoon commander checks active detail locations at the start of tour, logs the result, and prints a copy for the roll call — so the command knows which of its officers are standing a paid post in the area, and when.

And the general failure clause is broad: a member who breaks any Department or programme rule may be banned from a particular vendor, suspended, or dropped from the programme altogether, on top of any discipline.

What these pages cannot tell you

Neither document sets rates. The paid detail procedure describes how an officer enrols, what they must do on the post and how they lose their place — but what a vendor pays, and what the Department charges the vendor on top, sit outside it. So does how a business books a detail in the first place.

What the two together give an officer is the shape of the choice. Private work: twenty hours, three clear hours before a tour, nothing in your own precinct, no uniform, no shield, no police authority in security work and no indemnity unless the employer bought it. Paid detail: twenty hours a week and eighty a month, ten hours at a stretch, three hours clear before a tour and one after, in uniform, radio on, still a police officer — and the City behind you when it goes wrong.

Common questions

Can an NYPD officer work off duty in uniform?

Only on a paid detail administered by the Department. Uniformed members are not authorized to work off duty in uniform in any other arrangement, so private security work is done out of uniform and without the shield.

How many hours a week can an NYPD officer work off duty?

Twenty, under both systems. Private off duty employment is capped at twenty hours a week except during vacation or terminal leave; paid details are capped at twenty a week and eighty a month, with no single assignment longer than ten hours and no vacation exception.

Does the City cover an officer who is sued over off duty work?

It depends which system the job came through, and the two answer oppositely. On a paid detail the City will represent an officer whose actions fall within section 50-K of the General Municipal Law. In private security work, in most instances there is no legal representation or indemnification, because those protections attach to acts within the scope of municipal employment.

Can an officer work off duty in their own precinct?

No. Off duty employment is prohibited in the precinct of assignment, and paid details may not be worked within the geographical confines of the assigned command. Under the watchguard rules a client's premises may not be in the member's precinct, and a person being protected may not live there either.