Secondary Employment In Police Agencies

642 Words2 Pages

Secondary employment and side jobs that many law enforcement officers work adds to their paychecks, on top of their salaries, and may also be a challenge for them when confronted with various crimes. In some police agencies, secondary employment is forbidden as it creates a problematic theory for scheduling officers to a shift and produces fatigued officers, unable to perform 100% on their primary job due to the officer being fatigued. Other police agencies allow their officers to work secondary jobs but the officer must maintain the integrity of the department they are employed with as the officer is a reflection of the agency, especially when they are working in a law enforcement capacity (Doerner, 2016).

A police officer can never let their …show more content…

Most police agencies have a secondary employment form that must be completed by the officer that is seeking a second job, and the form details a set of guidelines the officer must abide by, especially if the secondary employment is within a law enforcement capacity (Doerner, 2016). Regardless, the officer is still a sworn police officer and is sworn to uphold the law at all times within their jurisdiction. Some challenges faced by off-duty police officers are they may encounter a high-risk threat, and the officer will usually be alone or with people that are not police officers. "Ten percent of the law enforcement deaths during the 2001-2010 period occurred when the officer was off-duty", (Doerner, 2016, p. 328). Furthermore, most officers working a …show more content…

Officer Kimberly Raso engaged two shoplifters from a store and pursued them in a parking lot that escalated into a deadly force situation. Raso was sued because she killed one of the suspects but was later found not guilty as a result of the case (Peck, 1999). Contrary to the lawsuit, any officer can be sued for engaging a deadly force scenario that results in the suspect being killed by the officer. However, this particular lawsuit was more in-depth and challenged the authenticity of the officer because she was working as a security guard rather than a full-time police officer, and the suspects thought she would not and could not shoot at them (Peck, 1999). In theory, there are no off-duty periods for law enforcement officers as they are entitled to respond to threats 24 hours a day, and that creates the levels of stress that comes with the job (Bethel,

Open Document