UT System Police and secondary employment

A presumption in your favour, and no appeal from it

Two sentences sit a page apart and are worth reading together, because between them they define how much say an officer has.

The policy states that there is a presumption that, absent a defined reason, the request should be approved — and the reasons are then listed out in full, so an officer can check their own job against them before applying.

It also states that secondary employment is a privilege and not a right, that there is no obligation on the department to approve it, that discretion rests solely with the institution Chief of Police or the Director, and that there is no right of appeal against a refusal.

Put beside the rest of this section, that is one end of a real spectrum. Murray requires a written reason at the time, allows an appeal to the Chief within ten days and a grievance after that. Washington State Patrol bargained language saying approval will not be unreasonably withheld, judged against four stated criteria — wording a grievance can be measured against. UT System publishes its criteria openly and then closes the door on challenging the answer.

Eligibility comes first in any case: one year as a commissioned peace officer, not on disciplinary suspension, not the subject of an internal investigation, and performing satisfactorily. Approval must be in writing and obtained before the work starts.

The limitations also apply to voluntary work — work done freely without compensation — though no application is required for it.

The hours, and a rest rule keyed to the length of the job

The combined total of university work and off-duty work may not exceed 72 hours in any consecutive seven-day period, or 16 hours in any 24-hour period.

Then comes a provision found nowhere else in this section. Any off-duty job longer than five hours must be followed by at least six hours before reporting for university duty.

Every other rest rule here is fixed: Seattle's six consecutive hours in any rolling 24, Georgia's six-hour gap before going back on duty, Virginia Beach's thirty minutes between jobs at different locations. This one is conditional — a short detail carries no rest requirement at all, and a long one triggers it. The trigger is the length of the job you just worked.

In practice it means a five-hour job and a six-hour job are different animals for scheduling purposes, and the difference lands on the shift after.

The employer has to pass a character test

Most policies here vet the type of business. UT System vets the person behind it, and does so in unusually plain terms.

Where the outside employer is an individual, they must not be a convicted felon or habitual offender, must not be a member of an outlaw motorcycle gang, an identified criminal street gang or a drug trafficking organisation, must not be engaged in prostitution or human trafficking, and must not otherwise be of disreputable character or reputation. Businesses associated with any of those activities are barred on the same footing.

Baltimore reaches something similar by running a background investigation on employers and their owners. UT System simply publishes the disqualifying list, which has the advantage that an officer can apply it themselves before submitting anything.

A rank rule sits alongside it, and it is the sharpest statement of a problem several agencies dance around: supervisors may not work off-duty jobs where they report to, or are scheduled by, a subordinate in their own chain of command. DC Metropolitan governs who may supervise whom on a detail; this addresses the inverse, where the detail quietly turns the chain of command upside down.

Fraternity events, and why the university makes itself the employer

This is the section that could only have been written by a campus agency, and it is the most interesting thing in the document.

Officers may not be employed directly by fraternities, sororities or similar campus social organisations where the event involves the service or consumption of alcohol, or where it should be reasonably apparent that it will. Nor may they be employed directly by such organisations for any event that is not an approved, registered, official or sanctioned university event.

But the work is not banned. Officers may work those alcohol events on one condition: the employer must be the university.

And the policy says exactly what that changes. Where the university is the employer, all parties must clearly understand that the officers are present in their official capacity as law enforcement officers, are expected to perform their duties as peace officers accordingly, and must ensure the state Alcoholic Beverage Code is fully observed and enforced.

It is an elegant solution to the oldest problem in off-duty work — who the officer is actually working for when something goes wrong at a party. By interposing itself as the employer, the university removes the private customer from the arrangement entirely. San Jose does the same thing on a bigger scale, replacing bar details with a downtown unit staffed on duty at the overtime rate. Philadelphia does it for everything.

The bar ban reaches the car park

Employment is prohibited in nightclubs, bars, taverns, liquor stores and other establishments whose primary purpose is the service or sale of alcohol — and the prohibition expressly extends to parking lots and other adjacent properties, or lands owned by the same business.

That is worth flagging, because the parking lot is precisely where most agencies put the officer. Clayton County requires the majority of the shift to be spent in it. Newport News permits it with a minimum of two officers. Columbus allows outside areas but not patios where alcohol is served. UT System closes the whole property.

One exception is carved out: a private party hall rented by patrons for weddings and similar social events, where guests are invited and the event is not open to the public. Owning, managing or investing in an alcohol establishment is prohibited outright.

The rest of the prohibited list is long and specific: process server, repossessor, bill or loan collector, bouncer, bail bond work, case preparation or investigative work for an attorney or insurer, any establishment where gambling is occurring, any employer currently in a strike or labor dispute, sexually oriented businesses, owning or investing in a private security or investigation business whether licensed or not, and any job where the officer is expected to give a private interest a special advantage at the public's expense.

Work that is law enforcement in nature is limited geographically to the counties where UT System Police hold primary jurisdiction.

Neither side of the courtroom

Officers may not serve as subject matter experts or expert witnesses for parties or attorneys in a plaintiff's lawsuit brought against a law enforcement officer or agency, other than on behalf of UT System Police.

And they may not serve as experts for a defendant or defense attorney in a criminal matter, except where it is required in the performance of their duties.

Both directions are closed, which is rarer than it sounds. Columbus permits paid expert work in non-criminal cases that do not involve the City and are not adverse to another law enforcement agency. The Justice Department's regulation carves fact-witness testimony out of the definition of outside employment altogether. UT System leaves an officer no paid role on either side.

Case preparation or investigative work for an attorney, an insurance company or a similar private entity is separately prohibited, so the route around it is closed too.

In uniform, armed, and no agency vehicle

Where the work is law enforcement in nature, it is performed in uniform only, and officers must be armed and equipped exactly as they would be on duty. All issued equipment may be worn and used — a 2024 amendment, replacing an earlier requirement that officers buy their own uniform privately from a vendor.

The badge may be worn for identification as a peace officer. Non-approved attire may not be worn with the uniform. Anyone in the uniform must be providing a law enforcement service or teaching a law enforcement curriculum — not standing in it for something else.

Agency vehicles are out entirely, and the policy closes the usual gap: department vehicles may not even be driven to and from the site.

When law enforcement action is taken, UT System Police reports are used, the activity goes through the department reporting system, and an on-duty supervisor is notified immediately.

One provision is worth knowing before taking a job off campus: on-duty personnel will not be used to transport prisoners or respond in support of an officer's off-duty work unless the place of employment is within UT System Police jurisdiction. Anywhere else, the local agency with jurisdiction is who gets called.

The money has to be traceable, and permission ends in August

Compensation must be paid in a form that is documentable and auditable — invoices, cheque stubs, canceled cheques, direct deposit receipts, receipts for cash received, payroll records. The request form itself must set out how the officer is to be paid and at what rate, alongside the employer's details, a description of the work, the anticipated hours a week and any license numbers.

The rate itself is left alone. It is a private matter negotiated in good faith between the officer and the employer, unless the work falls under a standing contractual arrangement for special events. There is one limit: an individual officer may not negotiate on behalf of a larger group of officers.

That is a different philosophy from most of this section. Columbus sets a floor by rank and asks to be told when anyone is paid above it. Newport News has the department bill the customer at rates the Chief sets. Plano puts a standing committee of five employees on reviewing the rates each year. UT System treats the price as the officer's own business and only stops one person speaking for many.

Every approval expires on 31 August, and a new request must be submitted and approved before working after that date. It is the academic year, and it is the seventh distinct renewal date in this section — alongside the hire-date anniversary, the birth month, 1 January, 1 July, the appraisal date and the five-year cycle.

Sick leave carries a shorter lock than most: an officer using sick leave for their own illness or injury on an assigned workday may not work off duty during that shift, or during the eight-hour period following it. Clayton County runs twenty-four hours from the start of the missed shift, Newport News twenty-four from the end of it, Houston twenty-four from the start of the shift the leave was taken for. Four agencies, four clocks.

Approval is revoked for doing off-duty business while on duty at the department, for work that interferes with police duties or availability for emergency call-out, for performing below standard, where excessive sick days suggest the outside work is taking a toll, for working a job while on sick leave, and for failing to report the exercise of law enforcement authority.