Frequently Asked Questions

A: Yes.

1. If a job is cancelled by an NOPD supervisor due to police necessity or other extraordinary circumstances, no penalty will be assessed, and the full amount of any advance payment will be credited or refunded to the customer.

See policy for complete details. 

2. In these occurrences please take note and contact your assigned coordinator:

• OPSE office number: 504 658-8757 (or)
• after hours/weekends the OPSE On-call number: 504 906-9992 (or)
• email opse@nola.gov

Mayor Mitch Landrieu created the Office of Police Secondary Employment (OPSE) to reform the legacy paid police details system for the good of the New Orleans Police Department and for the good of the City. The City is committed to helping police officers tackle the tough law enforcement challenges we face by removing the administrative burdens of secondary work while maintaining for them the ability to supplement their income.

For details paid on an hourly basis, OPSE began implementing the new policies and procedures in August 2013.  We are now fully implemented and manage all hourly work and task-based work. Task-based jobs include motorcycle escorts of any type, drug or bomb dog sweeps, horse-mounted details, races (marathon, Iron Man, fun run), mini-parades (limited number of floats), walking parades, and second lines.

Customers ultimately decide which rate of pay officers will receive. A customer can offer any one of the Tier rates. Some customers offer higher rates because of the difficulty of the job or because they wish to pay officers more. When a customer selects a tier level, it is posted along with job details and location. Officers then select the jobs they wish to take.

OPSE 4-Tiered Pay/Fee/Price Schedule

Tier	Police Officer
	Officer Pay	Admin Fee	Customer Price
2+	$37.00	$8.00	$45.00
3	$46.33	$8.00	$54.33
4	$68.00	$8.00	$76.00
5	$95.00	$8.00	$103.00
Tier	Sergeant
	Officer Pay	Admin Fee	Customer Price
2+	$41.00	$8.00	$49.00
3	$49.10	$8.00	$57.10
4	$68.00	$8.00	$76.00
5	$95.00	$8.00	$103.00
Tier	Lieutenant
	Officer Pay	Admin Fee	Customer Price
2+	$43.00	$8.00	$51.00
3	$52.00	$8.00	$60.00
4	$68.00	$8.00	$76.00
5	$95.00	$8.00	$103.00
Tier	Captain/Major/Commander
	Officer Pay	Admin Fee	Customer Price
2+	$47.00	$8.00	$55.00
3	$56.00	$8.00	$64.00
4	$68.00	$8.00	$76.00
5	$95.00	$8.00	$103.00

To see rates for motorcycle escorts, canine and mounted divisions please click here.

A minimum rate of Tier 3 rate per officer per hour will be charged on designated holidays and other times of high officer demand when officer availability is limited. 

All jobs are paid according to the published fee and pay structure currently in effect. Different types of jobs may have different pay rates. For example, the pay rate for a Mounted Officer may be different than a Patrol Officer.

One-time jobs will receive an invoice and must be paid 48 hours before the scheduled job. We can receive payment in the form of a check, ACH draft, or credit card. 

You should contact the Office of Police Secondary Employment at least 7 days before your event begins.

1. The OPSE has built a fee of $5 per hour or 15%, whichever is less, into the cost structure.  This fee offsets administrative costs associated with managing police secondary employment, including management software costs, credit card and bank charges, staff salaries, and other expenses, and is maintained in a separate enterprise fund segregated from the city’s General Fund. 
2. All OPSE staff are civil servants whose salaries are independent from the revenues generated from police secondary employment. How much OPSE staff is paid does not in any way depend on how much money is generated through the new program. 

There is a clear benefit to both the customer and the public to maintain established relationships on secondary jobs consistent with community policing objectives. We have worked hard to create a system that balances fairness and police best practice with good relationships and experience built over time. Most officers will continue to be able to work long-standing jobs, but will be required to be rotated on a yearly basis. The exceptions to this rotation requirement include permanent jobs at schools, hospitals, places of worship, banks, and major special event venues (Superdome, Arena, Jazz Fest, Essence Fest, French Quarter Fest, and other events as determined by the City). 

Yes, when your job is accepted and scheduled, you will receive a telephone number for your job’s coordinator. You can call your coordinator at any time and they will help to solve your problem. After hours, you can call the OPSE on-call coordinator at (504) 658-8747.

One major feature of the system is the customer’s ability to provide feedback on the officer’s performance using a third party. Our coordinators will be able to record your comments regarding the officer’s work performance to help with quality control and you will be emailed a link to our customer service survey after your job is complete.

An OPSE coordinator may come to your job, but it is not mandatory. The coordinator will have the ability to monitor your job through customer and police reports. 

An OPSE coordinator will be responsible for those tasks that officer detail coordinators traditionally performed, including liaising with the customer, scheduling officers, tracking hours, managing customer feedback, and ensuring policy compliance.

Call your coordinator immediately so that he or she can make adequate arrangements. 

No. As part of the administrative fee received by this office, customers will receive detailed receipts and tax information regarding all of their police employment jobs.

No, it is our intent to simplify the process for customers by using our online system www.HireNOPD.com or by calling us at 504.658.8747. Much of the administrative work is accomplished using web-based interfaces for officers and customers.

Secondary employment requiring the simultaneous or overlapping schedule of one to four officers may be worked without a ranking officer. In these instances the most senior officer accepts responsibility for overseeing the job. Jobs requiring more than four simultaneous officers will require on-the-job supervisors according to OPSE’s supervisory tables. Ultimate supervisory oversight shall be the responsibility of a patrol supervisor in the district of the secondary employment assignment. 

The OPSE coordinator responsible for that job will be responsible for managing substitutions and schedule changes.

No. The money will go into OPSE’s enterprise fund that is separate from the City of New Orleans General Fund. The enterprise fund’s express purpose and only function is to collect fees from customers, pay police officers their earned wage, and fund the administrative costs of this office.

Mayor Landrieu created the Office of Police Secondary Employment (OPSE) anticipating the requirements of the federal consent decree negotiated with the U.S. Department of Justice. The consent decree mandates that a separate office, outside of the department, coordinate all police secondary employment for NOPD officers.

Currently, officers are paid one of two ways:

1.       Time-based:  Those jobs that involve securing a geographic place, whether it is a store or restaurant, a city block, a sector of festival grounds, or sector of a major special event venue, for a known or estimated amount of time.  Time-based jobs will be paid:

2.       Task-based: those jobs that require a specific task to be accomplished. Time varies. This includes all traffic escort jobs (oversized loads, weddings, funerals, second lines). One fee includes both personnel and equipment charges. 

It depends on the pay rate the customer offers.  See the court-approved pay schedule above. 

We use a flexible pricing system that allows the customer to choose one of the four available pricing tiers established by court order. The customer always has the final authority on which pricing tier to offer. See pay chart above.

 

Officers are paid by direct deposit on their regular paycheck. Officers cannot receive direct payment from customers.

 

 

1.       The OPSE’s fee is $5 or 15% of the officer pay rate, whichever is less, for each hour into the customer cost.  This fee offsets administrative costs associated with managing police secondary employment, including duty supervisor pay, management software costs, credit card and bank charges, and staff salaries, and will be maintained in a separate enterprise fund outside of the city’s General Fund. 

2.       All OPSE staff are civil servants whose salaries are independent from the revenues generated from police secondary employment. How much OPSE staff is paid does not in any way depend on how money is generated through the new program.

No. The OPSE will only reimburse the city for non-personal items that incur clear operating or maintenance costs (e.g. mounts, motorcycles, cars, canines, etc.).

Per Special Order #8-2024, NOPD employees are permitted to work up to 16.35 hours per rolling 24-hour period that includes any combination of normal duty, overtime, outside employment, or secondary employment.

Employees are limited to working a total of 112 hours of overtime, secondary employment, or a combination of the two, so long as the total number of hours worked per pay period does not exceed 112 hours in addition to an employee's normal working hours.

For those jobs that do not require specialized skills or experience, opportunities will be fairly rotated among qualified officers. If you are qualified for the job, have a record of good performance, and want the job, you will have the same chance of being offered the work as all of your qualified peers. The primary factors that will be used to offer jobs are qualifications, performance, and number of hours already worked.

No. OPSE regulates only security-oriented work. Outside employment (landscaping, tax preparation, photography, catering, etc.) is regulated by NOPD policy only.

An OPSE coordinator will be responsible for those tasks that detail coordinators traditionally performed, including working with the customer and scheduling officers.

Members who are unable to report for a secondary employment job will contact the OPSE coordinator and report the reason for this absence prior to the scheduled report time.

a. If less than 24 hours prior to the start of the member’s post shift, the member will call the coordinator’s cell phone to inform him or her of the necessary cancellation. Unauthorized cancellations less than 24 hours before the start of the post shift will be counted as two cancellations and considered in the member’s reliability rating.

b. If more than 24 hours prior to the start of the post shift, members may cancel a confirmed assignment by advising the OPSE Coordinator via email or cell phone of the necessary cancellation. Unauthorized cancellations more than 24 hours before the start of the post shift will be counted as one job cancellation and will be considered in the member’s reliability rating.

2. After cancelling a confirmed post shift via telephone communication with a coordinator, the member will immediately follow up after the call with an SMS text message or email to the coordinator confirming the cancellation and restating the reason for the cancellation. 

After signing up initially to work details through our online form and being cleared to work through your supervisor and the Compliance department, officers can sign-up to request jobs through the PowerDetails app. The PowerDetails app is available in both web and mobile versions. 

Officers will be required to fill out a sign-in sheet when clocking in to and clocking out of their secondary employment job. Those sign-in sheets must faxed, scanned or emailed to our office in order for officers to be paid in a timely manner. You can find a sample form here.

Reserve Members have the same opportunity to sign-up for and work details as active officers; however, they:

a) Must be in good standing with the NOPD as determined by the commander of the Reserve Division and verified by the Compliance Section;

b) Will have worked the requisite number of volunteer hours the previous month to have earned secondary employment privileges, and are prohibited from exceeding the NOPD monthly maximum hours of secondary employment for Reserve Members;

c) Must be registered in the city’s BRASS system, through which reserve officer pay will be disbursed. 

OPSE has limited vehicle resources to allow officers without access to police vehicles to be able to work details requiring cars.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes. But just because you selected a job, it doesn't guarantee you will be assigned to that particular job. Officers receive an automated email confirming all assignments, but don’t assume that if you have not been assigned several days before the event that you did not get the job. There are last-minute changes that can occur, and you may receive confirmation of an assignment within the last few days before the job.

All jobs contracted with OPSE more than 48 hours before the event are posted to the scheduling system and are viewable by all officers on the PowerDetails app. Jobs received less than 48 hours before the event may not be posted, and will be filled by coordinators proactively contacting officers who have expressed interest in working last-minute details. OPSE publishes officer work stats each year in its annual report.

 

No, as long as you have worked/will work no more than 16 hours since first reporting for work of any kind on that calendar day, you need not have a rest period in between your regular shift and your secondary job.

As outlined in the consent decree, secondary employment requiring the simultaneous or overlapping schedule of one to four officers may be worked without a ranking officer. In these instances the most senior officer accepts responsibility for secondary employment related notifications. Supervisory oversight shall be the responsibility of a patrol supervisor in the district of the secondary employment assignment. Additionally, OPSE will have supplementary senior officer supervision on every shift.

No. Captains, majors, and commanders may only work in supervisory roles. Deputy chiefs are not allowed to work details as per NOPD policy.

The OPSE coordinator responsible for that job will be responsible for substitutions and schedule changes.

We are actively soliciting business for the New Orleans Police Department. We have a marketing campaign targeted to vendors that use supplemental security that will promote the value of contracting NOPD officers. Still, officers themselves are the best advertisements. Do good work and you are an easy sell to potential customers.

We will use a combination of customer feedback and supervisory input to record your performance and report it through your chain of command. Good performance will be recognized and rewarded; poor performance will be documented and penalized.

Yes. OPSE will periodically forward input to the department that will be considered in your normal performance evaluations.