What is an off-duty detail?

How the work is arranged

It varies enormously. Some agencies run a coordinator who assigns jobs; some use a booking system where officers claim postings first-come; some let businesses contact officers directly within rules the agency sets. Many officers work for several sources at once.

How it is paid

Also varies. Where the employer pays the officer directly it is usually self-employment income the officer reports themselves. Where the agency arranges and pays it, it more often runs through payroll. In Canada paid duty is generally employment income with deductions taken at source.

Why officers lose track of it

Because it arrives in pieces, from different people, and gets paid at different times. A detail worked in March might be paid in May by an employer you have worked for twice since. Without a record, the honest answer to what the year brought in is a shrug.

What is worth keeping

The date, the employer, the hours you actually worked, the rate, the mileage if it applies to you, and whether the money has arrived. That last one is the part everyone skips and the only one that answers “who still owes me?”

Where it turns up

Logging a job and what it paid · What the year adds up to · Records and the year-end report