It was an honest question. Hey, I don't know what police officers are allowed to do. It just seemed weird to me that two officers in uniform were out getting thier car washed. I don't know when thier shifts start/end.
There are several localities (apparantly St Mary's is not one of them) that are beginning to restrict officers from taking thier vehicles home to cut costs, so I just assumed that the officers in front of me were on duty, they were in uniform.
A lot of people don't realize the benefit of having the officers have a take home car. It really does save the taxpayers money in that there are so so many time where the officer responding to a call for service is actually and "off duty" officer who is working a secondary job at a business such as Sheetz or some other place in the park. These officers don't put in for overtime when they respond, and they allow the on duty officers to continue with the work they were doing.
Unfortunately in these tough economic times, crime often tends to increase. I think it irresponsible for a police department to futher endanger citizens by restricting the amount of "free" labor they have in officers on the street.
It is a program which first, is part of police officers hiring package, part of the fringe, then secondly, it works for both the officer and the citizenry.
I hope I answered your question.