This article explores central themes in policing and security scholarship by examining a ‘users pay’ form of police moonlighting in Ontario called ‘pay duty’. Drawing on interviews with police personnel and service users, as well as analysis of ‘pay duty’ data and policies from four municipal police services, we raise questions about this form of policing in relation to police marketization, knowledge work and visibility. Our analysis of pay duty casts doubt on assumptions about the pervasiveness of police marketization and knowledge work. We also explore dimensions of police visibility overlooked in existing literature and make connections to issues of legitimacy. We demonstrate how police marketization, work type and visibility represent a key conceptual trifecta useful in examining this pervasive form of police moonlighting, and in policing and security studies more broadly.