By Hector Castro, Seattle Post Intelligencer
They direct traffic outside parking garages, patrol grocery parking lots and provide security at football games.
About 400 of the Seattle Police Department’s 1,248 commissioned officers work off duty -- what officials call “secondary employment.
Yesterday, Chief Gil Kerlikowske issued a departmentwide memo outlining a new policy guiding this off-duty work after what he described as months of work drafting the new policy.
But the change also comes on the heels of reports that several officers who work off-duty jobs have come under scrutiny by the FBI’s public integrity task force.
Department officials have declined to provide any details about the inquiry.
“It’s not our investigation,” Assistant Chief Jim Pugel said recently.
Pugel said off-duty work can benefit the public as more police officers would be in the community than the department could afford to deploy on its own.
“It’s a great crime deterrent,” he said. “They make people feel safer.”
Even so, he said, off-duty work needs to be regulated to ensure that officers are accepting jobs at appropriate places and behaving as officers when they do so.
Some of the changes in the new policy simply update language. The previous policy, for example, still contained references to the Kingdome, which was demolished in 2000.
But there are other changes. One is a requirement that applications for off-duty work now must be approved by the officer’s precinct commander and the commander of the precinct in which the work will be done.
In addition, the new policy spells out more clearly the types of establishments where an officer can work. Under the former policy, officers were prohibited from working at businesses that sell alcohol.
The new policy is more specific, prohibiting any direct relationship between nightclubs and officers and banning any work at raves or similar events.
Along with the new policy, the department issued a list of best practices to follow, drafted by its legal adviser, Leo Poort.
One suggestion: “Always remember that you cannot be just a witness. As a police officer, you are expected to take appropriate law enforcement action at all times.”
The other suggestions include being paid by check, never cash, and acting as a police officer before all else.
“If a citizen approaches to request service or report a crime, fully handle the call like you would any other. Do not tell citizens to call 911 or that you cannot take action because you are off duty,” Poort suggests.
In order for a police officer to take on a second job, he or she must fill out an application annually for secondary employment. Some file one even though they have no immediate plans to work off duty but want to be considered if, for example, off-duty work at Safeco Field suddenly becomes available.
All current permits for secondary employment are set to expire at the end of next month, and officers will have until then to file new applications.