Opinion ID: 2206061
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Are the Peace Officers Entitled to be Compensated for Their Drive Time?

Text: Drive time is normally non-compensable. Raper, 688 N.W.2d at 45. The regulations applicable to peace officers provide: A police officer, who has completed his or her tour of duty and who is given a patrol car to drive home and use on personal business, is not working during the travel time even where the radio must be left on so that the officer can respond to emergency calls. Of course, the time spent in responding to such calls is compensable. 29 C.F.R. § 553.221(f) (1991). [1] The two exceptions to the general rule that drive time is non-compensable are when drive time is an integral and indispensable part of the employment, or when there is a custom or practice between the employer and employee to compensate the employee for their drive time. Raper, 688 N.W.2d at 45.
The district court found the peace officers are not entitled to compensation for their drive time. It concluded even though the peace officers drive state-owned vehicles that contain police equipment, the drive to and from home is still just a commute under the FLSA. The peace officers argue when they are driving their vehicles, they are watching for law violators, assisting the public, removing debris from the highway, and remaining in contact with other law enforcement officers. Several federal courts have addressed this issue. In Aiken v. City of Memphis, plaintiffs sought compensation for the time spent commuting to work in their vehicles. 190 F.3d 753, 759 (6th Cir.1999). Similar to the case at hand, the plaintiffs in Aiken argued the city should compensate the police officers for their drive time because they must respond to emergencies they observe or receive notification of by dispatch while driving to work. Id. The court determined monitoring a police radio does not convert commute time into compensable work and the amount of work involved in monitoring a police radio during a commute is simply de minimis.  Id. Similarly, in Hellmers v. Town of Vestal, a police officer sought compensation, among other things, for his commute time. 969 F.Supp. 837, 843 (N.D.N.Y.1997). The court noted police officers are not entitled to FLSA compensation for commuting time spent in marked police cars. Id. The court noted, however, the town would likely be required to compensate the officer for any time he was required to respond to a police emergency or other police activity not incidental to his commute to work. Id. at 843 n. 2. The stipulated record in this case notes incidents when a peace officer would stop on the officer's commute to perform law enforcement duties. As certified peace officers, these officers may take any enforcement action permitted by any sworn officer. Nevertheless, substantial evidence supports the district court's conclusion that any law enforcement duties performed on the commute did not change the commute into an integral or indispensable part of their employment. The record indicates two of the six peace officers did not include their drive time in their hours worked for payroll purposes. Further, the six officers rarely performed any law enforcement duties outside of enforcing the hunting and fishing laws. Most of the time, they left the enforcement of the laws not dealing with hunting and fishing violations to other law enforcement officers. A reasonable mind would find this evidence adequate to reach the conclusion these officers' drive time was no more than a non-compensable commute under the FLSA.
The district court did not rule on whether there was a custom or practice to compensate the peace officers for their drive time in its original findings of fact, conclusions of law, and order. The peace officers filed a motion to enlarge or amend the district court's ruling under Iowa Rule of Civil Procedure 1.904(2), asking the district court to address this issue. The district court summarily denied the peace officers' motion. We, therefore, must assume the district court found against the peace officers on this issue. In Raper, the plaintiffs raised many of the same issues involved in the present case. We determined drive time is compensable when there is a custom or practice between the employer and employee to compensate the employee for drive time. 688 N.W.2d at 45. In Raper, we reversed the district court by deciding there was no substantial evidence to support the court's finding there was not a custom to compensate the peace officers for their drive time. We concluded the evidence established a custom to compensate the peace officers for their drive time. In the present case, however, there is substantial evidence to support the district court's conclusion the State did not have a custom or practice to compensate the peace officers for their drive time. Only four of the six peace officers who brought this action considered their drive time compensable. The inconsistency in tracking work time by the peace officers supports the district court's decision the State did not have a custom or practice to compensate the peace officers for their drive time.