PERSONAL HISTORY/BACKGROUND

PERSONAL HISTORY/BACKGROUND

Nearly* all criminal justice agencies require applicants to fill out extensive questionnaires concerning their prior history. The purpose of the questionnaire or application form is to determine if there are any factors in the applicant’s background that would disqualify him/her from employment with the particular agency. One example is the Los Angeles Personal History Form for Police Officer Applicants.
The general areas of focus include but are not limited to:

1. Educational background

2. Medical (psychological) history

3. Official Criminal history and past criminal conduct (undetected)

4. Driving history

5. Employment history

6. Current and past drug use

7. Current and past alcohol use

8. Financial/credit history

9. Sexual conduct – some issues acceptable to one agency or in one state, may
be disqualifying in another. (Wrongful cohabitation, adultery, oral sodomy, etc)

If none of the factors in your application or personal history form disqualify you from employment outright, the information you provide serves as a blueprint for the background investigation.

*Hiring standards are very lax in some agencies, typically very small non-metropolitan area police and sheriff's departments. This is generally an artifact of limited resources, a highly politicized environment, poor agency leadership, and/or very limited state mandated hiring standards. Based on personal experiences I have found such agencies less likely to exist on the West Coast. Some agencies also require applicants to pay a fee when submitting their application. (See Federal Way, WA for example.)

THE BACKGROUND INVESTIGATION
(FOR EMPLOYMENT OR SECURITY CLEARANCE)
Background investigations are an important component of the screening process for criminal justice agencies. Such investigations are required for most state/local criminal justice employment, and also for issuance of a security clearance when already employed with a federal agency.

The purpose of the background investigation is to determine the following:
1. Is the information submitted in the application and/or personal history statement is correct/truthful?

2. Are there any material omissions of fact or information in the application/personal history statement

3. Is there any additional information which relates to the suitability of the applicant for employment (or a security clearance)
(This includes MEDICAL issues. See the California POST medical screening manual for Law Enforcement)

Also review the general minimum selection standards for peace officers in California

for additional insights into the Background Investigation Process.

With federal agencies a particular focus during background investigations is:

a. The applicant’s loyality to the United States

b. Whether the person interviewed (references) would recommend the applicant for a positon of trust.

Read the ADJUDICATIVE GUIDELINES FOR DETERMINING ELIGIBILITY FOR ACCESS TO CLASSIFIED INFORMATION

Federal law enforcement agencies require applicants to qualify for a security clearance. If you cannot do so, you will not be hired.

Print out the Questionnaire for National Security Positions(SF-86)
and the Supplemental Questionnaire (SF-86a)

NOTE: Applicants with foreign spouses may not be employed with federal intelligence agencies unless or until the spouse becomes a U.S. citizen. Extensive foreign connections and relatives living in certain countries may also affect the ability of both employment, and/or clearance for access to classified information.

Background investigations for the F.B.I. are conducted by agents of the F.B.I., but many other federal agencies rely on background investigations conducted by General Investigators (non-criminal, GS-1810 series) from the federal Office of Personnel Management. Some agencies, such as the Treasury Department, also contract with their retired agents to conduct background investigations for additional income.

The results of federal background investigations become part of the applicant's permanent file, which can then be accessed by other federal agencies with a need to know. You may also file for a copy of a completed background information under the Freedom of Information Act and you should expect the process to take at least one year.

EXTENSIVENESS OF BACKGROUND INVESTIGATION

A minimal background investigation, usually includes checking computerized criminal history files, credit reports, making telephone calls to or writing your references, current and past employers, educational and financial institutions, and also contacting physicians, psychologists/psychiatrists and various types of counselors, if you indicate that you have used their services.

During a more thorough background investigation, as is done by federal agencies, a background investigator from the agency you are interested in working for, will personally visit your references, educational institutions, past employers, physicians, psychologists, etc......, along with knocking on doors in your current and past neighborhoods where you have lived, and asking your current or former neighbors whether they know you and/or whether they know anything about your behavior while you lived in the area. Some agencies will have an investigator visit your “watering hole” (the bar, pub or nightclub you frequent) to inquire about your conduct and reputation. Interviewing past roommates and significant others is also part of the process. If you are married, federal agencies will also check the criminal history of spouses.

Background investigation manuals suggest a visit to the applicant's Post Office to determine if the applicant has been receiving any strange plain brown envelopes. A contact with police agencies in all jurisdictions where the applicant has lived, to determine the existence of any files not entered into an otherwise accessible database, is also required at the federal level.
(Not all arrests are necessarily recorded in a central database or made electronically accessible by outside police departments, depending on the violation or offense involved) Some of the steps outlined above become particularly important in investigations for security clearances.

The standards for conducting background investigations are up to the individual agency, with the exception of any minimum steps dictated by state law or the respective state peace officer standards commission or its equivalent. See also the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Education and click through to the state you are interested in, for state peace officer employment standards. Federal background investigations are more thorough than those conducted by state/local agencies. Federal investigative agencies have offices or representatives in all states, in all major cities, and in most foreign countries with whom the United States has favorable relations. If an applicant has lived in a foreign country, it is likely that this would not hamper the agency assigned to conduct the background investigation. (Agencies not having an office in a particular country can submit a RFA (request for assistance)in conducting the investigation, to another/different federal agency that does have a representative in that country.

Review the process with the Florida Highway Patrol for additional information on background investigations.

RED FLAGS THAT CAN DUMP YOUR CANDIDACY:

a. Lies or omissions in your application

b. Unexplained gaps in your educational and/or employment history
c. The same personality conflicts with each of many different employers

d. Record of rejection by many other agencies with no reasonable explanation

e. Admission of conduct listed as disqualifying in employment announcement or job description.
f. Certain types of prior drug use or alcohol abuse
g. Domestic violence
h. Any cases of moral turpitude*
i. Prior felony convictions (nearly always a disqualifier)

What in the ^%%$##@!@!! is a crime involving "Moral Turpitude?"

PRIOR DRUG USE (No uniform standard across the United States)

Individual states have minimum hiring standards which may include a prohibition against some prior drug use.

Arizona is one example of a complex formula regarding disqualifying prior drug use. Click here for the drug use rule and also general entry standards for peace officer applicants.

Colorado is an example of a state where an agency (Denver Police Department) has recently hired an applicant who had admitted to using drugs on more than 150 occasions, including crack cocaine, LSD, methamphetamines and, naturally, marijuana. The applicant in question was able to jump other more qualified applicants for reasons enumerated in one of the articles below.

Fewer police applicants just said no

A third of newly hired Denver candidates reportedly admitted to drug use
Denver police gave recruit '2nd chance'

Drugs In Past Of Most Cop Cadets

It is commonly recognized that a large number of applicants, who are otherwise qualified for employment, have experimented or used illegal drugs in the past. Accepting some prior drug use by applicants reflects the reality that police agencies would have difficulty finding otherwise qualified applicants. Additionally, law enforcement agencies compete against one another for applicants, which leaves the less than ideal candidate for some of the agencies with low salaries, minimal benefits, and high turnover due to internal turmoil.

MARIJUANA USE

A candidate with prior marijuana use is not generally rejected, unless that use is/was very frequent (the term is NOT simply for experimentation) or very recent. Even the Drug Enforcement Administration may hire you if you meet all of the other standards.

Some of the prior drug use standards are very strange. One municipality accepted an application from a graduating college student, and the applicant admitted in the initial application that, while in H.S. 5 years earlier, he had used steroids for six months to build up his muscles.

The agency subsequently administered a physical agility exam, conducted a background, and after more than five months rejected the applicant for steroid use indicated in the original application. This applicant is currently with a federal agency that did not disqualify him for the steroid use.

While heroin use is generally disqualifying, some law enforcement agencies do not automatically disqualify applicants for heroin use, depending on the recency of the use. It must be noted that prior drug use standards change. What disqualifies an applicant with the same agency in one year, may not in another, or the reverse. Drug use unacceptable to one agency may be acceptable to another. The issue in the screening is always: