When a police officer also works as a security guard after hours ...?

Question

How much is he allowed to use from his police officer job for his after hours job? Is he allowed to do something like run your plates and then share that information with his private employer? Or, call a member of your family and say he's an employee of the place he works as a guard for and that he's calling on their behalf, but also that he's a police detective ... and then start asking all kinds of personal questions about you?

And before you guys start picking on me, I did not do anything even slightly illegal. If you heard why he did it you'd laugh ...

Answer 1

magicbird has it right except for one thing: as an officer I can call whoever I want and ask whatever, it is the person answering that can put down the phone.  It is purely voluntary and saying one is a police officer should send a red flag to desire to meet in person anyway.  

You can run plates as an officer for criminal justice purposes only, not for personal gain or interest of a third party.  

Answer 2

You've got us curious--please tell us what 'he' did. We'd all enjoy a good, funny story (and please understand, I don't mean laughing 'at' you).

Re: your question--I suspect that he would be crossing the line if he used his police department privileges in his private job as a security guard--unless, that is, it is something that would be a police matter anyway. For example, if he 'ran plates' because he was suspicious a car was stolen, or if there was a robbery at the private job? That sounds reasonable.  But if he 'ran plates' just as a favor to his boss--say the boss wanted to know whose car was in his  ex-wife's driveway?  No.

...and I don't think he, as a private security guard, has the right to call your family members for his private employers sake and use his police detective status to intimidate them into answering personal questions.  Not unless it's police business too.  He has to stay within the boundaries of his job description.

Answer 3

A police officer is technically on duty 24/7.  He or she may act as an Officer if he or she deems in necessary.  I was a local cop and worked part time as a security guard at a retail store in my hometown.  I ran plates on shoplifters or suspected shoplifters, and even made arrests if it was a felony (over $250).  Are you a lawyer? What you may think is innocent and totally legal may in fact be illegal.  Unless you are trained or know the laws you really have no say in what is legal or not.  He however cannot run plates for personal information and share it with non-Law Enforcement personell if it is of a personal nature.  However, he can say your criminal history since that is public record anyway.  As from what I hear, he was just investigating possible FRAUD, which is illegal.  Since you had a large amount of coupons, you could have made copies, or stolen them  He doesn't know, so as detective he decided to investigate further...hence the word DETECT in Detective.    

Answer 4

It might be contrary to department policy, but there is no general law that governs.