“I can’t imagine what kind of religious sect would not allow for work in a job like law enforcement on the Sabbath.”
the issue is worship more than work. She can work Saturday nights, but she has to have a day each week to worship and rest (according to God) and her sect says that day is Friday night to Saturday night just as Jews did. If she’s working, she can’t worship and she can only worship Friday night to Saturday afternoon.
“Jesus Himself rebuked the Pharisees over this sort of thing repeatedly in the Gospels.”
No, He didn’t. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for attacking Him and the Apostles for doing extraordinary things (like healing people) or ordinary things (like picking grain from stalks while they walked through fields) when doing the extraordinary (like preaching the Kingdom of God) on the Sabbath. Jesus pointed out that the Pharisees would rescue a prized animal on the Sabbath (i.e. do something extraordinary) so why were they attacking Him and the Apostles for trying to save Israel. Even Jesus would have opposed ordinary work for ordinary times on the Sabbath. What He was doing was extraordinary. The two situations are very different. This cop is doing an ordinary job that has a few extraordinary situations but can easily be done by someone else filling in for her. If she were a Jew no one would question this.
I think SDA is a crackpot, phony 19th century invention, but they have the right to worship like anyone else. Just have this woman work from Saturday night right through Friday afternoon (or Thursday). Problem solved.
Would those SDA folks be OK if nobody answered their 911 calls on the Sabbath?