The City of Charlottetown is changing the way its police officers are paid for providing late-night security to a number of downtown businesses.
Coun. Rob Lantz, chair of the city's police committee, told the media Tuesday night the city is in the process of drafting a policy that regulates extra duty work
Right now, many officers on the force can be seen standing outside nightclubs in full uniform providing security during their off-duty hours. Presently, those officers are paid by the establishment where they are providing that security.
The business will now enter into a contract with the Police Service for each request. Upon completion the business will be invoiced for the cost of the officers extra duty, and the officers will be paid through the regular payroll system.
Instead of paying officers directly in cash, the Police Service is invoicing the clients and retrieving the money through accounts receivable. This ensures that all income received through extra duty is taxable income. It will not cost taxpayers anything additional to pay for extra duty.
Following council's regular public monthly meeting Tuesday night, Lantz said the change makes things more transparent.
"There's liability issues, there's issues of the appearance of police being paid by third parties, issues of whether that income is documented all the time,'' said Lantz. "It's just to provide some more transparencies and control on the whole process.''
The matter of off-duty security work is one of a number of issues the City of Charlottetown is reviewing as part of the report made public in February on the Charlottetown Police Department.
The city commissioned a full review of the department last September in an effort to deal with growing demands for more police services. A request for proposals was issued and the firm of Verheul and Associates conducted the review. It produced a detailed 29-page report.
The consultant didn't question the right to alternate employment but noted that the department needs to draft a policy to protect taxpayers from conflict of interest, having public servants employed by private business.
Lantz didn't know exactly how much the new policy will cost city taxpayers but did say off-duty pay would be the same as the current overtime rate, more than they currently make on duty.
"It is a stipulated rate now. It's the overtime rate of corporal, I believe.''
A draft policy is in place now. The police committee chair wants his fellow councillors to have a close look at it to see what they think.
"It's comprehensive, it really defines exactly what we expect of our officers when they are performing these types of duties. It lays out the process for payment, how a client provisions these types of services from (the) police service.''
Lantz expects the policy to take effect in another month.
Lantz said the city is also nearing a decision on where it will establish a downtown satellite police station and making the force more visible to the public in terms of communicating with the media. It means the public will hear from more than one officer all the time. The currently position of media spokesman will be discontinued soon.
