Police departments nationwide continued to confront troubling incidents. This man was knocked unconscious by an officer working bar security. >> Howdy, sir. >> How are you, sir? >> What are we doing? >> And in Ohio, an offduty deputy working security at Walmart used a taser on a cab driver after there was a dispute about whether or not he was stopped in a fire lane. So, here's a fun question. When a police officer is off duty but still flashing authority, issuing commands in escalating situations, are they a private citizen or just a cop on a smoke break? Because apparently the rules depend on how bad things go. CBS News just dropped an IT team investigation looking at offduty police incidents across the country. you know, moonlighting, side gigs, secondary employment, because one badge clearly isn't enough authority per paycheck. In many of these cases, officers were armed, sometimes in uniform, and acting exactly like police, just without the annoying parts like body cameras, supervisors, or accountability. Thin blue lies, baby. According to the report, departments handle offduty work however they feel like. Some don't review disciplinary histories. Some don't require body cams. Some barely track what officers are even doing. So an officer can enforce laws, detain people, and use force, but somehow not be fully responsible for it. Very convenient. And that raises the obvious question. If you act like police, carry police weapons, use police authority, why does accountability suddenly clock out at 5:00 PM? When police officers clock out from their day jobs, many clock back in, working other security jobs at businesses, bars, maybe even nightclubs. These jobs offer a lot of extra income for them, and they help put more uniforms out on the streets. But a CBS News investigation working with Arizona State University's Howard Center for Investigative Journalism found that many in many departments oversight is weak. >> As the IT team's Brian New explains, that's allowing some officers with serious disciplinary histories to keep working off duty. >> You're getting a free ride. No, I'm not. >> When Shenita Terrell left a Houston bar in 2020, confused and disoriented, she was met by two Harris County deputies. Both were off duty, one moonlighting his bar security, but they didn't call her an Uber. They put her in a patrol car. >> See you in the morning. >> You know, I came for a good time and I left with a lifetime of misery. That next morning, Terl woke up in pain and rushed to the hospital for a rape exam. >> I live with it every day. Every day I replay it. >> So, when people say this offduty accountability problem is theoretical, it's not. Take Harris County Deputy Michael Hines. Hines pleaded guilty to felony attempted sexual assault and the punishment, deferred adjudication and sex offender registration, but no conviction if he behaves. But here's the part that always gets skipped. This wasn't his first serious arrest. Before this, Hines had already been arrested on a sexual assault of a child charge, no build, by a grand jury. Later, he was also arrested for assault involving a family member. And yet somehow he was still trusted to work offduty jobs, armed, unformed, and unsupervised. When it finally blew up, the response was predictable. That's not a loophole. That's the system doing exactly what it was built to do. >> Deputy Michael Hines plead guilty to attempted sexual assault. He was fired but never served jail time. The offduty deputy who put Terrell in the car and recorded this video was suspended for 10 days. It was his third suspension in a year. But even while on probation, the sheriff's office kept approving his offduty work. Many officers moonlight for extra money. Robin Foster with the Harris County Deputies Organization says offduty jobs also put more uniforms out in the community. >> They're sanctioned by their agencies to go act as peace officers. So we know that that event is safe. If we don't have these opportunities, we're not going to have peace off. You're not going to have peace officers at sporting events. You're not going to have peace officers at concerts. >> Here's the reality they don't want to say out loud. Police authority is not a costume. You don't get to put it on when it benefits you and take it off when it gets you sued. The moment an officer uses the badge, the gun, or the command voice, they're acting under color of law. But departments love this gray zone because when something goes wrong, they get to shrug and say, "Well, technically, he was off duty." Oh, my bad. Did the bullets know that? But police departments nationwide continued to confront troubling incidents. >> In Kansas City, Missouri, a bystanders video shows an offduty officer working security kneing a handcuffed man in the neck >> and that's when I fell to the ground and hitting my head on the concrete. >> In Fort Worth, this man was knocked unconscious by an officer working bar security. >> Howdy, sir. >> How are you, sir? What are we doing? And in Ohio, an offduty deputy working security at Walmart used a taser on a cab driver after there was a dispute about whether or not he was stopped in a fire lane. In all cases, the officers either declined to comment or did not respond to our requests. CBS News, in partnership with Arizona State University's Howard Center, reached out to more than a 100 police agencies and found a problem with accountability. Most don't track when or where officers work side jobs, don't limit their hours, and when problems arise, they don't always know. Shenita Terrell wishes someone had done all of these things. >> I was put in the wrong hands that night by a cop that the club hire >> when all she needed was a ride. CBS found officers with misconduct histories still approved for offduty security jobs. Think about that. Too risky for patrol, but totally fine to stand around armed in public with zero supervision. And when something happens, internal affairs slows down. Discipline disappears and the victim gets told to take it up in civil court. Translation: Good luck. See you in 5 years. >> Uh CBS News along with the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, they've spent the past year looking into offduty jobs for police officers. So tell us, Brian, just how common is the practice? >> Ken, it's widespread. We reviewed policies of more than 100 departments nationwide and found nearly all of them allow officers to work second jobs, usually as security, but the rules vary greatly and oversight is often weak. We found nearly a third of the departments that we reviewed don't have a formal process for approving or tracking these jobs. And I know you talked about it a little bit, Brian, but tell us again, why do the departments allow this? Uh, what's the benefit? What's in it for them? >> Yeah, departments say that it improves public safety because it puts officers in places where otherwise there may not be a police officer, such as shopping malls, concerts, sporting events. It also allows police officers to earn extra income without leaving law enforcement. >> So, it sounds like the problem here really comes down to oversight. Why do you think that is? Yeah, Ken, it really comes down to policy. Many of these departments don't have clear rules when it comes to these offduty jobs. The International Association of Police Chiefs recommends that departments have a clear policy where officers can and cannot work and a formal process for approving these jobs so that supervisors know when they are working these offduty jobs. But as our reporting shows, that's just not always the case. This isn't about banning offduty work. It's about honesty. You can't demand obedience, respect, and compliance from the public, then pretend authority doesn't count when it's inconvenient. Rights don't clock out, and neither should consequences. If departments want officers treated like civilians when they mess up off duty, then they should stop letting them act like cops in the first place. Until then, this isn't a loophole. It's a feature and the public keeps paying for it. Thin blue lies, baby.