Stanford public safety and outside employment

One order, two subjects

General Order 15.02 is titled Outside Employment and College Attendance, and putting those two things in one document is the whole point of it. It was adopted on 7 March 2023, replacing a version from 2006.

Stanford's public safety deputies are sworn through the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office, so the order carries both university rules and California county deputy law — which is why some of its prohibitions cite the Government Code directly.

Its definition is deliberately wide: outside employment means secondary employment outside the agency's service irrespective of whether it involves the use of law enforcement authority. There is no separate, looser track for non-police work.

Twenty hours, and a January reminder

The cap is flat and low: hours worked in outside employment shall not exceed twenty per week.

Set that beside the rest of this section — Lakewood's 18 hours of extra duty a week, Jacksonville's 120 a month, Dallas's 80 across everything — and Stanford sits at the restrictive end, especially because its 20 hours covers all outside work, not just police-type work.

Approval is not a one-off. A written request goes up the chain in advance, naming the location, the type of employment, the days and hours, and the employer's name and address. Then employees must notify the Field Services Captain and their immediate supervisor every January of continued outside employment and the hours they are currently working.

Permission may be withdrawn at any time at the department's sole discretion, and outside work must never require a change or substitution in the employee's regular shift. The job fits around the roster, never the reverse.

School counts too

This is the provision that makes Stanford worth reading for anyone studying while they work.

Employees may not carry more than nine college-level units per semester or quarter without approval. A request to the Field Services Captain must set out the subjects, the hours, the units per subject and where the classes are held — the same detail the employment request demands.

Employees on initial probation may not exceed nine units at all, with academy credits excluded when the department sponsors them.

It is an unusual rule and a defensible one: a degree taken at pace is a second commitment competing for the same rest, and the department that watches off-duty hours has decided to watch study hours with them. Neither may be done on duty.

The prohibited list, and what it says about California

Some entries are familiar: process server, repossessor, debt collector, bodyguard, bartender, bouncer, sales clerk in a liquor store or gun dealership.

Others are particular. A whole category covers gaming — card dealer, handicapper, change maker, caller, gaming machine repair, keno runner, pit boss and more, wherever the work is tied to the establishment's primary purpose. And funeral escort work is prohibited where traffic control or a uniform resembling a peace officer's is required, which is precisely the work Hillsborough sells by the marked car.

Deputies may hold no other peace officer position, may not act as or partner with a collector or certain lawyers, and may have no interest whatever in a private detective agency — including indirectly through community property or a trust. That last clause reaches a spouse's business, which few policies bother to close.

What this page cannot tell you

There are no rates here and no detail system, because the order is about permission rather than about paid police work — and Stanford's wide definition means much of what it governs is not police work at all.

What it does give an officer is the shape of a week: twenty hours of outside work, nine units of study, a January declaration, and nothing that shifts the roster.

Common questions

How many hours a week can a Stanford deputy work outside?

Twenty, renewed every January.

Does studying count?

Yes — nine college units a term is the limit without approval, so a heavy course load is treated like a second job.

Who approves it?

The Director, for both the outside work and the study allowance.