Police Banned From Off-Duty Work At Clubs

Officers

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Miami Beach Police Chief Dan Oates has prohibited his officers from taking lucrative off-duty assignments at more than a dozen nightclubs.

The city is investigating whether a police sergeant was drunk while working an off-duty shift at a South Beach club. The Miami Herald reports that’s at least the fourth instance of a Miami Beach police officer being accused of being drunk or drinking while in uniform over the last three years.

Oates’ policy takes effect Aug. 1. He says his department needs “more safeguards and tighter rules before we can consider allowing this kind of work to resume.”

The police union’s president criticized Oates’ new policy, saying officers will spend less time patrolling neighborhoods because they’ll be called more often to nightclubs.