By Dr. Chuck Russo , Program Director of Criminal Justice at American Armed services University

For v years, I served as the background investigator at a county sheriff's section. After that, I was hired by a municipal police section and was immediately assigned every bit their background investigator for the adjacent iii years earlier finally escaping the role to return to road patrol.

Frequently, job seekers would ask me the same questions fourth dimension and again and it became credible to me that no one had really taken the time to explain the background investigation process to individuals applying for jobs in law enforcement and corrections. While each department may conduct the groundwork investigation a bit differently, there are many commonalities that utilize to all criminal justice agencies.

Footstep 1: The Application Procedure

Showtime you lot must decide to submit an application for a sworn position with an agency. If your application is incomplete, you may receive a alphabetic character saying and so, forth with some other application packet to complete. However, in some agencies, the awarding is logged equally incomplete and y'all will never hear from that bureau once more.

If the application is complete when information technology comes into the office, it is frequently logged into a groundwork investigation spreadsheet and the background investigator starts a folder for your application.

Step 2: Groundwork Investigator Initial Screening Process

The background investigator now gets to work. He or she will brainstorm by first pulling all your records. If the agency is just hiring personnel who take already enrolled in or completed the police enforcement university for office-time/full-fourth dimension positions and for those without the academy noncombatant officer positions (traffic control specialists), the background investigator will go into the state's police enforcement/corrections record direction system (east.g. Florida's Automated Training Direction System, ATMS). Investigators will use these databases to check your agency employment history and your state certification.

These records prove the background investigator all the agencies you accept worked for in the state, if whatever, and the reason for separation (voluntary separation, terminated, nether investigation). If your tape shows "terminated" or "under investigation" the background investigator volition often contact the agency to determine the cause of separation.

If you are a male person, the background investigator will check to come across if you accept registered for the Selective Service. The background investigator will then run your name through the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) besides every bit the state database (due east.chiliad. FCIC in Florida) to see if you have whatsoever criminal history.

The investigator will also pull your commuter license history to see what violations you take collected. If you lot have a staple in your driver license history—meaning in that location'southward more than one page—that is not skilful as it often indicates a DUI, suspension, or insurance bug.

The background investigator may also pull a groundwork data written report on you that includes everything from property ownership to relatives to places you lived when you were a kid, and compare this data to your application.

If you were prior military, the investigator will send for your records. At this signal, if you are not certified as an officer or were terminated for cause or about to be terminated for cause, if you are not registered for Selective Service and should be, if you accept a criminal history, have issues with your driver license history, or your written report does non friction match with your application, by and large the background investigator will stop processing your application and issue you lot a "thank you, but no cheers" letter.

Step 3: In-Person Interviews with Section Officers

If you pass the previous phase, you will motility on if the agency has an opening. The groundwork investigator may start this phase with an oral interview. Typically the groundwork investigator does non participate in the oral interview, only may escort yous into the interview and remain in the room during the interview.

Y'all will be asked a series of questions and the agency will gauge your responses. "The agency" may consist of a line employee (officer/deputy), a supervisor (corporal/sergeant), a manager (lieutenant/captain), or some variation of these ranks/individuals. Those in the interview will issue a score and a "yeah" or "no" response.

A "no" means yous go a "thank you, but no thanks letter." A score and "yes" means the background investigator has more piece of work to practice and thus he or she begins the adjacent phase of the investigation procedure.

Stride 4: Checking Your References

The background investigator will beginning the process by contacting your references, checking your places of employment, and contacting your neighbors. Their goal at this stage is to confirm the information yous have self-reported and discover out more than almost you.

He/she will contact the law enforcement agencies where you live/have lived and ask them to bank check their records for any contacts with you. The groundwork investigator will contact all agencies you have worked for either by phone or in person and pull your employment jacket.

This stage requires a lot of work and takes time to complete. The background investigator plays a lot of phone tag with people—leaving messages dorsum and forth—

and does a bit of driving in some cases. During this stage, the background investigator may as well drib by and see you without warning to verify how yous live.

He/she may also contact academy instructors and even your sometime professors. If he/she discovers any differences between your application and reality—such as poor employment history—or if the investigator is unable to contact any of your references, then he/she will likely send you a "thanks, but no thanks" letter of the alphabet. Sometimes he/she may "know" something isn't right, but has non been able to plough up whatsoever evidence. When this occurs, he/she will dig deeper and deeper until what is giving him/her that uneasy feeling is discovered or discounted.

Step 5: Medical, Polygraph and Psychological Exams

If you accept made it this far, consider yourself in actually good shape as the vast majority of applicants do not go to this stage. Now begins the next phase of the procedure: your medical screening, drug screening, polygraph and psychological exam.

Your psychological examination may be a newspaper and pencil 150+ question exam and an interpretation session with a doctor, which will generate a report to the bureau. The information in the report may vary from a matrix that ranks you in 1 of three categories (low risk, medium hazard, and loftier risk) to a paragraph that states the individual is deemed "fit" or "unfit" for the duties and responsibilities of the position.

Agencies want depression take chances, they don't want high risk, and they will often take a good look at medium risk scores. Loftier-risk individuals have a probability of finding themselves on the forepart page of the newspaper and not for good reasons. Medium-hazard individuals may get on that front end page, while low-chance individuals accept a probability of being on the front page, but for the good reasons.

The medical and drug screen are pretty cut and dry–no drugs in your arrangement and you volition not drop expressionless tomorrow. The question to be answered is: "Are you able to physically perform the tasks associated with beingness a sworn officer?"

The polygraph consists of an extensive interview followed by the attachment of sensors to the body. The interviewer asks a series of questions and observes the results on the polygraph. If no deception is reported and no new information emerges from this procedure, y'all are expert to be hired for a position. If the agency has more successful applicants than openings, they then brand a decision on who to hire total-fourth dimension and who may receive offers for reserve/role-fourth dimension positions.

Decision

Going through the application procedure for a law enforcement position is a rigorous and time-consuming process. While each bureau does things a chip differently, the process is generally the aforementioned. Every time a background investigator picks upwards or handles your application, you run the take a chance of getting a "thanks, only no cheers" letter. It is very like shooting fish in a barrel to get 1 of those letters–much easier than it is to successfully go far through the process.

About the Author:   Dr. Chuck Russo has been involved with American Military University since 2001. He began his career in law enforcement in 1987 in central Florida and was involved all areas of patrol, training, special operations and investigations. Dr. Russo continues to design and instruct courses, likewise as act as a consultant for education, government and industry throughout the United States and the Middle East.

Dr. Russo earned his Chief of Arts degree in didactics in 1995 and Master of Science degree in criminal justice in 1996 from the University of Central Florida. He earned his doctoral degree in public affairs at the University of Cardinal Florida in 2006. His inquiry focuses on emerging technology and constabulary enforcement applications.