City to consider outsourcing police off-duty scheduling to private vendor to curb overtime and improve collections

The Jersey City Police Department presented a resolution at the July 13 caucus to award a contract to Extra Duty Solutions to administer the police department’s off-duty program and provide scheduling software. The proposal is structured so the vendor would take an 8% administrative fee per off-duty hour from the fees currently collected from customers, not from the city’s operating budget.

Sergeant Arjun Jim Woods outlined the proposal, saying the vendor would manage paperwork, financial transactions and collections and provide scheduling and geofencing functionality intended to make off-duty details more accountable. "Utilizing modern software with robust reporting capabilities," he said, the vendor would supply guaranteed payroll to the department and allow supervisors to track assignments in real time.

Council members pressed staff about how the software would prevent officers from logging time without being on site and whether officers must use city-issued phones. Woods said the app supports geofencing and that officers will use city-issued phones; the department also plans to explore vendor features such as periodic re‑authentication to reduce the risk of a phone left at a site being used to falsely log hours.

Officials said the system would also reduce administrative burden and payment risk by having the vendor collect and forward funds to the city on a schedule, protecting payroll even if a customer has not yet paid. The contract is proposed as a cooperative purchase through a purchasing cooperative; the council did not vote at caucus and will see the resolution on the regular agenda.

If approved, the administration said the change would not require direct city funding; it would be paid from the administrative fee charged to the companies or persons hiring off-duty officers.