Nearly 9,000 serving police officers, including many of senior rank, are earning money from second jobs, an investigation by the The Mail on Sunday has revealed.
The revelation of the widespread use of police spare time to boost wages comes as Home Secretary Theresa May faces stiff resistance to plans for cuts to pay and pensions, at a time when the annual bill for official police overtime has reached 382 million pounds, the paper said.
The registers of police-business interests identify a total of 8,669 second jobs. They include an officer in the Sussex force who has declared a financial interest in a gambling website and two Norfolk detectives who moonlight as mystery shoppers, it said.
A chief superintendent from Surrey makes money from selling jewellery, a Norfolk PC works part-time as a Royal Military Policeman while one officer from the Thames Valley force is a drone operator.
Under current regulations, officers can take a second job, provided it is compatible with their police duties and they have been given permission by a senior officer.
Association of Chief Police Officers is drawing up tougher guidelines to restrict officers from taking on certain second jobs or working as paid consultants.
The largest number of second jobbers are officers with the Metropolitan Police, where there are 3,041 declarations of business interests
