Common Off-Duty and Overtime Incidents that Can Land Agencies on Front Page News

For law enforcement officers and the communities they serve, off-duty work is mutually beneficial. Officers receive opportunities for extra income, businesses get improved security, and the public appreciates a heightened sense of public safety.

In such an obviously helpful system, why does off-duty management consistently generate negative headlines?

The answer lies not in off-duty work itself, but in the systems, processes, and best practices that surround it. Agencies with the right infrastructure and technology in place often run more visible, compliant, and structured programs.

But those without the right approach to off-duty work run the risk of issues, investigations, and misconduct eventually coalescing into front-page headlines.

Here’s a look at some common ways agencies fall into these media incidents, and what they can do to avoid them from the start.

Attendance Verification

In February 2026, a state board voted to revoke the law enforcement certification of a former deputy. The Arkansas deputy had been clocking in at a local children’s hospital without being there in person. An internal investigation led authorities to uncover the attendance irregularities.

Although the officer was acquitted of theft charges, the board still voted to decertify, making it clear that allegations of attendance fraud can have significant repercussions. When on-site attendance is manually or loosely tracked, it opens the door to verification issues—deliberate or not.

The fix: technology makes it easier than ever to verify attendance. With Geo-Fencing, for example, agencies can get accurate attendance verification reports for off-duty work, and officers can receive real-time notifications when they arrive and leave off-duty locations.

On-Duty and Off-Duty Double-Dipping

In January 2026, a New Orleans deputy was arrested and charged with public payroll fraud and malfeasance in office, thanks to financial irregularities that showed she had been paid for off-duty work that occurred during her normal on-duty work hours.

This type of fraud, known as “double-dipping,” is common. Despite its brazenness, “double-dipping” occurs across the country, and every year, agencies are forced to deal with negative headlines about officers taking home pay for two jobs at once.

The fix: An off-duty management platform that integrates seamlessly with on-duty scheduling systems makes it difficult for officers to clock in to both types of assignments at once. With a fully integrated tech stack, agencies can eliminate the small but frequent scheduling gaps that make double-dipping possible in the first place.

Faked Off-Duty Shifts

In December 2025, a Florida officer was charged with 79 counts of misconduct after it was discovered he had been submitting off-duty timesheets for assignments that didn’t exist. Nearly a year passed before the agency discovered financial irregularities in its off-duty financial reporting that led to an investigation into the officer’s off-duty history.

Because of the officer’s autonomous role, months had passed before the “ghost” shifts became apparent. This is an inherent risk of manual self-reporting for officers, and one that agencies are often blind to—until it’s too late.

The fix: When off-duty assignments are tracked, confirmed, and invoiced through a platform focused on visibility and compliance, it becomes nearly impossible to work and invoice fake shifts for an extended period of time. But that level of transparency only exists when tracking is automated and verifiable—and not self-reported.

Overtime Fraud

In February 2026, a Florida officer was charged with three felonies after being paid for more than 200 overtime hours—over a three-month span—that were never worked. The situation became even more complex when it was discovered that the officer had been in a relationship with a supervisor who played a role in the misconduct.

Although the agency had policies in place to prevent certain conflicts of interest, this particular incident of overtime fraud occurred because of the personal relationship within the chain of command. And when it became public, the investigation affected numerous administrative processes that the agency was forced to address.

The fix: When off-duty and overtime work is managed manually, conflicts of interest can easily appear in an agency’s blind spots—ones they might not even know they have. But when this work is tracked and monitored outside the limitations of personal relationships, the opportunity for fraud is drastically reduced.

Keep Your Agency Out of the Headlines with PowerDetails

In each of these cases—and countless others in the news—the one common thread is that the fraud, misconduct or irregularities that occurred were entirely preventable.

Whether it’s an issue with attendance verification, correctly tracking assignments, or preventing fraudulent shifts and hours, each of these incidents can be prevented when agencies leverage the right off-duty management solutions.

At PowerDetails, our platform is purpose-built with more than 20 years of experience to deal with these risks in mind. Our solutions give agencies the visibility, transparency, and compliance they need to ensure a smooth-running off-duty program that stays out of the headlines—and stays focused on serving their communities.

Request a demo today to see how PowerDetails can level up your agency’s off-duty management program.