Virginia Beach Police and off-duty employment

Three different things with three different rules

Virginia Beach separates what most agencies run together. Secondary employment is police work for a private employer, scheduled through the department's off-duty office and paid by a third-party vendor. An agency job is the same kind of work requested by the department itself and paid through the city's own system at the officer's overtime rate. Non-police employment is everything else — landscaping, real estate, retail — which does not go through the office at all.

Two different authorisation forms follow from that split, and both need the Division Deputy Chief's approval before any work begins.

Authorisation runs for a year and expires on 31 December for everyone. That is a common renewal date rather than a personal anniversary, which means the whole department reapplies at once.

Probationary officers are not eligible at all. Sergeants and lieutenants may work jobs that would normally be filled by an officer, at the officer rate. Captains and above may not work uniformed secondary employment. Officers on military orders are prohibited regardless of where they are.

The hours, and the thirty-minute rule

Two ceilings. No more than 68 hours of law enforcement work in any consecutive seven-day period, counting everything done for the city and for private employers together. And no more than 16 hours in any 24-hour period.

The 24-hour clock starts with whichever shift came first, detail or regular assignment. The policy works two examples: a detail from 8am to 2pm followed by a regular shift from 3pm to 1am is fine, and the officer can work again at 8am the next day. A detail from 8am to 5pm followed by a regular shift from 9pm to 7am is not.

Then the separation rule, which is the one that quietly constrains a schedule: thirty minutes between any two secondary jobs at different locations, and thirty minutes between a secondary job and the primary shift. Same location, no gap needed. Back-to-back jobs at different sites are not permitted at all, because they make clocking in and out impossible to verify.

Officers may not move their city schedule or change days off to fit off-duty work. Vacation or paid time off can be used with approval; unpaid leave cannot. Taking time off mid-shift to work a detail and then returning is prohibited outright.

Bidding, and dropping

Jobs are announced, bid for and tracked in a mobile app, on city-issued phones. The policy requires location services to be on and active while an officer is working, whether on primary duty or off-duty employment.

Dropping an assignment is governed in tiers, which is unusual enough to be worth setting out. More than seven days ahead, an officer can simply drop it, no replacement needed. Up to two hours before, they can transfer it directly to a named eligible officer — but the transfer is not final until that officer accepts, and if they do not, the original officer still works it.

In between there is a conditional drop, available up to 24 hours ahead, which offers the shift to everyone. If nobody takes it before the deadline, it comes back and the original officer is still responsible.

After all three options are exhausted, the only route is an email to the administrator explaining the circumstances and documenting the steps taken. The policy is explicit that the scheduling vendor will not remove an officer from a shift in those circumstances.

Turning up late costs the three-hour minimum — the officer is paid for actual time worked instead, and has to note the reason in the app.

What will not be approved

The prohibited list covers process serving, bill collecting, anything requiring access to police files as a condition of the job, defense case preparation, and wearing the uniform for work that is not law enforcement.

Employers are excluded by trade: towing, taxi firms (rideshare is expressly carved out), massage businesses, pawnshops, bail bonds, cannabis manufacture or sale, and sex-oriented businesses. Gambling is out except for bingo fundraisers. So is working as an investigator or a bodyguard of any kind.

Alcohol venues are not banned outright but go through a written process: the administrator sends a memorandum to a Deputy Chief covering prior police activity at the site, staffing recommendations, what entertainment the venue provides, its licensing status and the officers' duty parameters.

One provision catches an arrangement other agencies miss: an officer receiving subsidised housing in return for security services is engaged in secondary employment and needs an authorisation on file like anyone else.

And during a declared state of emergency in the city, all off-duty permissions are revoked for the duration unless the Chief grants an exception case by case.

What you are while you are working it

Virginia Beach answers the coverage question with a phrase that is worth quoting because of how blunt it is: officers working a secondary employment job are not working for the department but rather as third-party security contractors on behalf of the private employer.

The practical consequences are set out. Where on-duty and off-duty officers are both present, the on-duty officer takes charge of a criminal incident so the off-duty officer can stay on site. An off-duty officer who makes an arrest hands it to an on-duty officer where conditions permit; where that is not possible, they clock out of the off-duty system and into the city's, and are paid by the city from that point.

They are expected to stay on site rather than answer calls nearby — except where the call involves immediate danger of serious harm.

Running through all of it is one absolute: an officer will never accept payment from the private employer and from the city for the same period of time.

Supervision, vehicles and pay

A job needing five or more officers requires a supervisor, which creates a sixth paid position. It must be a sergeant or lieutenant, and a supervisor working off duty cannot hand their supervisory role to anyone of lower rank.

The Chief sets the pay scale and officers are prohibited from negotiating rates. No cash, discounts, tickets or other gratuities — everything runs through the scheduling vendor's payroll, Monday to Sunday, paid the following Friday.

A private employer wanting a police vehicle pays a set hourly fee, and where a vehicle is required the officer gets thirty minutes of paid time at each end of the shift. Where no vehicle is requested, no police vehicle should be brought — the exceptions being officers with take-home vehicles and those on call for critical incidents.

If a private employer cancels with less than 48 hours' notice, the scheduled officers get three hours' compensation. School jobs canceled for weather are the stated exception.