Policies put limits on police working outside jobs

YORK, PA. » In 2014, three York City Police officers met with Zhen Ting Li, the owner of the restaurant Li’s Kitchen, to address recent neighborhood complaints.

Police had made drug arrests at and near the WeCo district restaurant. A man was stabbed there. Officers cited people for public drunkenness.

At that meeting, Li later testified during a hearing to revoke his liquor license, the matter of hiring security came up.

Testimony doesn’t explicitly say whether an officer made the suggestion — only that “it was recommended that he hire the police to perform inside security work.”

He didn’t hire police. Li said it was too expensive, and later hired other people to do security at the restaurant, which served Mexican food and sold beer to patrons.

The meeting, mentioned in a 46-page document put together by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, raises questions about why the suggestion would have been made in relation to a police department whose policies generally keep officers away from working security-related jobs.

The officers might have made that suggestion, York City Police Chief Wes Kahley said, but finding out who, or if it really happened, is irrelevant to him because decisions to work extra employment are not made by officers.

“We don’t allow officers to be privately hired,” Kahley said, adding his department frequently gets asked if they provide security. “We’re not going to be a bouncer for a bar.”

Other police departments in York County seem to be saying the same thing.

There are plenty of jobs officers can work outside their normal shift, but there are limitations when it comes to jobs that require the use of police action, according to a York Daily Record review of five county department policies.

While experts say secondary employment — instances where officers work off duty for a private business — is more common than most people think, some York County police administrators follow policies that keep their cops away from that type of work.

Concerns over conflicts of interest, liability, perception and other factors seem to be of more importance, the YDR review found.

Kahley wondered: If you had an officer working for a private establishment, where does the line get blurred?

“Are you working for the bar or are you working for the city?” he said.

Moonlighting not wellstudied

In York City, approval may be denied if the off-duty employment might “bring the city into disrepute or impair the operation or efficiency of the department or member,” department policy states.

York Area Regional Police guidelines prohibit officers from working at any establishment that sells alcohol or pornographic material, or allows gambling.

But that doesn’t mean York County officers can’t seek outside work.

At York Area Regional Police, for example, one officer, Michael Zinn Jr., was approved in 2012 to be an “actor/extra” in a 2014 thriller called “The Bone Garden,” according to department records received through a Right-to-Know request.

In general, officers might run side businesses like lawn care or work as insurance adjusters, experts and police officials said.

Seth Stoughton, a law professor at the University of South Carolina, thought the topic had not received enough attention. So last year, he conducted his own study by sending out a survey to about 400 police departments.

Agencies, he wrote, favor allowing officers to work security-related jobs at private places because it can increase police visibility and put off-duty cops in a position to handle situations that on-duty cops would otherwise have to.

Stoughton defines moonlighting as an officer working off duty for, and getting paid by, a private entity. While moonlighting can be a common practice outside law enforcement, what makes it unique to policing is that cops are hired for their authority.

An officer, he wrote, can use their public authority on behalf of their private employer.

“Most people aren’t aware that officers can work in uniform for a private employer and get paid by a private employer,” Stoughton said in a recent interview. It hasn’t been well-studied, he said.

Stoughton, a former police officer himself, received surveys back from 162 state and local agencies.

Of those, 130, or 80 percent, had some form of offduty private employment. He estimates in his paper, which will soon publish with the Illinois Law Review, that “far more officers may be working for private employers than is commonly assumed.”

Contracted overtime work

While this practice does not appear to be well-used in York County, departments here still do contract work, which typically does not require a request from an officer.

Officers can sign up for overtime assignments.

In Springettsbury Township, for example, the police department contracts with Central York High School to help direct traffic after football games. Officers also can sign up for Friday and Saturday overtime assignments at the York Galleria, Chief Daniel Stump said.

The officers, who patrol inside and outside, don’t work for the mall. Instead, the mall reimburses the township.

Another caveat is that officers aren’t available or don’t sign up each week, Stump said, so the township isn’t there each week. Officers can sign up for the assignment and work in their full uniforms and bring their patrol cars.

“We are there to ensure public safety and peace and so people can have a positive shopping experience,” Stump said.

His department’s policy bans outside employment that can result in “conflict between the private interest of the officer or his private employer and the officer’s public interest or responsibility as a township officer.”

“I do view (moonlighting) as maybe a conflict of interest for the officer where they might have to compromise the department’s policies and goals by working for a private entity,” Stump said.

The contract work avoids that conflict, Stump explained, for a couple of reasons. The first is that officers aren’t being paid directly by the mall. The second is because department rules and policies still apply during those patrols.

Other departments have similar arrangements.

York City Police work with a property company to do foot patrols, and officers can work city events like a 5K race. Northern York County Regional officers can do contract work for an auto auction business. On duty vs. off duty Certain conflicts played out for Stoughton during his time as an officer in Tallahassee, Florida, where he worked in the early 2000s.

Stoughton picked up moonlighting assignments at a nightclub where he worked in uniform with other officers.

They could work inside and outside the club, he said.

It’s in those situations, Stoughton’s later research found, that an officer may behave differently while on duty and handling a complaint versus how he or she might act while off duty.

He recalls times at the club where officers kicked someone out for acting inappropriately, but allowed them back the next night. He said officers should have given a trespass warning, effectively barring the person from ever coming back.

“That was of course very much in the interest of the employer,” he said. “They want customers. And just because a customer does something stupid - like throw a drink across the crowd - doesn’t mean the employer doesn’t want them back.”

There were times, too, when the club owner needed to be detained for interfering with their duties as officers.

But, he said, “do you really want to arrest the guy who’s handing you the fistful of cash at the end of the night?”

For Stump, in Springettsbury Township, it’s about having control in off-duty employment.

“What people like about hiring a police officer, whether it’s a bar or anywhere, is (officers) have experience. They have knowledge. They have training. But they also have authority.”

He continued, “That’s where you gotta be careful. Are they using that authority appropriately for the circumstance?”

Stoughton acknowledges he doesn’t think moonlighting is a bad practice. There are some benefits to it. He just thinks it deserves a harder look.

It comes down to the legal authority an officer carries with him. Officers are legally entitled and occasionally obligated to make arrests, restrict someone’s liberty and use force, Stoughton said.

“There’s nothing inherently wrong with that,” he said.

With moonlighting, however, “they’re using their legal powers as public officers in the context of working for a private employer.”