POLICE MOONLIGHTING: AN EXAMINATION

Defining Moonlighting Among Police Officers

Moonlighting, in the most common usage of the term, refers to a situation in which an individual holds two or more jobs where one of those jobs is considered to be a person's primary employment (Leonard & More, 1992, p. 592). When moonlighting is used in this context and is applied to police officers, the general perception is one in which a police officer holds down a second job in the local 7-11 or as a nighttime security officer. Certainly, such a perception is valid in respect to some police moonlighting situations. The phenomenon of moonlighting among police officers is broader in scope than is the traditional definition of moonlighting.

Many police departments--primarily the larger departments--either prohibit secondary employment by uniformed police officers, or require that police officers obtain departmental approval before accepting such secondary employment (Leonard & Moore, pp. 592-593). Police departments that restrict ordinary secondary employment by their uniformed officers frequently create internal or quasi-internal moonlighting situations that permit police officers to earn extra income.

Quasi-internal moonlighting may be said to involve the use of police officers for special event policing, such as providing security

. . .
ral adult working population is measured only within the context of one individual holding two jobs simultaneously, while moonlighting among police officers may involve either secondary employment or special event policing. While many large police departments either prohibit or regulate moonlighting by their unformed officers, the majority of police departments do not make any official effort to control the practice other than restricting secondary employment that might result in actual or perceived conflict of interest for the police officers involved (Reaves, 1994, pp. 5-6; Leonard & More, pp. 592-593). Potential conflict of interest situations involve moonlighting by police officers in bars, taverns, and nightclubs. A large minority (45 percent) of police departments, however, do restrict secondary employment to a maximum of 20 hours per police officer weekly. When all forms of police moonlighting are considered, however, mean extra shift hours exceed 20 hours per week per police officer for police officers involved in extra shift work (Arcuri & Lester, 1990, p. 350). Police departments frequently encounter problems in attempting to curtail moonlighting by uniformed officers (Moskowitz, 1989, p. WB16). Courts in some stat
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