Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

Hi Everyone!

I'm new to this site, but I have been reading a lot of the posts and I like how knowledgeable some of the people here are.

Now, I'm going to describe my background (I'm going to go into quite a bit of detail, as I feel it is required to get a good picture) and I would appreciate it if anyone with experience on the subject would advise me, Thanks in advance.
o I am 20 years old and I will have my AA in Criminal Justice an about a month. I plan on transferring to John Jay College of Criminal Justice, in NY. I live in central Jersey. A little more about my background;
• -No Criminal History what-so-ever
• -Never even tried any type of illegal drug/abuse of any drug (sounds crazy to some, but its true)
• -Graduated High school with a 3.7 GPA, about to get my associates with a GPA 3.8of at the community college I go to
• -No tickets of any kind on driving record
• -I successfully completed an internship of 30 hours at my local police department, complete with a certificate to prove it.
• -I had a job at my local Burger King (cue the snickers lol) for about 2.5 years. It's my personal belief that if you do something, do it the best you can, I never pulled any no shows there, been lazy, or anything else bad. My former district manager is actually one someone I plan to use as a reference.
- Currently I am employed at TD Bank, for about 15 months; there was no gap between those jobs.
• -I have 5 people I can use that I believe would be good references, one of which is the Captain at my local police department that supervised my internship.

A few other things to mention that I would like to know the potential effect on my employment outlook would be the legal status of my longtime girlfriend. We have been dating for over 2 years, but her visa to come here expired I think around 3 years ago. We have actually been thinking about getting married (for legitimate reasons, not one of THOSE marriages) I was wondering the potential impact that may have. Also, I moved out my parents’ house about 8 months ago, I neglected to change my address because I would have lost my full scholarship to the community college I am attending now. In the near future I will officially change it. Those are the only things that I believe could be a detractor, or maybe a red flag, to potential employers (particularly the lack of address change)

Finally, if it matters, I’m about 5 foot 8, 160 pounds, ran track in high school, and I'm moderately well built for my size. Now that I've told everyone all about me, I would really appreciate some feedback to things like
-my employment prospects with the NYPD (my ultimate goal)
-or any other local law enforcement agency, state, and federal also included.
-additionally I have wondered if choice to transfer to a well-respected school like John Jay, will actually improve my chances of finding a job as an LEO.

Again, thank you everyone for your time, and every answer is much appreciated, if more information is required, simply ask and I will provide it.

Sorry, just a "BUMP"

Off the top I see two issues First, when you moved out of your parents house you didn't "neglect" to change your address because you would have lost your scholarship. Instead, failure to change you address was intentional in order to keep from losing the scholarship. That is considered fraud. If the dollar amount of the scholarship goes over a certain level we are talking about a felony.

Next comes the issue of your girlfriend. If her visa has expired she is an illegal alien. We have had officers fired in my state for cohabiting with illegal alien family members. Used caution if you are living together now or plan to do so in the future while her status is in question.

You are correct; it was in fact intentional not to change my address. (I planned to go live at another school, but due to my lack of credit 3 years ago they were denied, so I wanted to get a similar experience, that was part of my motivation for moving out) The scholarship that I received was called New Jersey Stars, I graduated within the top 10% of my high school class, and therefore it allowed me to go to my community college free of tuition. The amount of the scholarship covered 4 semesters, so roughly maybe 7-8 thousand dollars total(I will validate the actually number shortly, I'm certain it could not have exceeded that).

Also, I am currently living with my girlfriend; we have been living together for 8 months. Her legal status will be resolved in a few months. I am concerned as to how that my come into play.

Do you believe the good may outweigh the bad? (Unless the fraud amount is enough to be considered a felony, I know that if I committed a felony I'm auto DQ :( ) I would be severely distraught if my actions have DQ'ed me. I plan o telling absolutely everything to the background investigator, (when I apply in about 6 or 7 months) and hope for the best.

Does anyone else have an opinion?

Thanks

You could always re-pay the " free " tuition that you got which you ceased to qualify for 8 months ago.

Thank you for the response,

I would definitely do that, im sure they have payment plans. Besides that, are my chance of being hired (given I pass everything else and such) realistic at this point?

Thank you guys for you're time.

Do you believe the good may outweigh the bad?

I did backgrounds for several years and then later supervised them.

The background has three functions. It verifies your identity. It verifies that you possess the minimum qualifications for the position you are seeking and it determines if there is anything in your personal history that meets the criteria for disqualification.

It is not a matter of weighing good versus bad. If you meet the criteria for disqualification, you are removed from the process. The fact that someone saved 20 orphans from a burning building and later earned the Nobel Peace prize does not make up for the one time they sold dope in college.

DQ criteria will vary from department to department. Roll the dice and see what happens.

Thank you,

I'm going to just tell them everything, work on a way to try and right the tuition thing, and see what they tell me. If that doesnt work, I'll aplly elsewhere and try again. Thank you L-1

other opinions/ potential solutions are welcome.

You are correct; it was in fact intentional not to change my address. (I planned to go live at another school, but due to my lack of credit 3 years ago they were denied, so I wanted to get a similar experience, that was part of my motivation for moving out) The scholarship that I received was called New Jersey Stars, I graduated within the top 10% of my high school class, and therefore it allowed me to go to my community college free of tuition. The amount of the scholarship covered 4 semesters, so roughly maybe 7-8 thousand dollars total(I will validate the actually number shortly, I'm certain it could not have exceeded that).


Only 8 months ago? I'm not a LEO, but before you believe you committed a felony, go talk to the college and see if you qualify for residency despite moving out. The motivation for not changing your address is a problem, but I would check with the school and get an official ruling on your residency before you consider it a crime.

Put another way, if you moved to Arizona to attend school and were only here 8 months, you wouldn't be considered a resident of Arizona for tuition purposes. Your residency would be your parents house despite what the post office thinks. YMMV but I'd go to the financial aid office with your new address and the 8 month move out and the amount of money your parents still give to you for support and ask them where you live. If you parents still claim you as a dependent, that may also be a part of it.

This doesn't minimize your intent to defraud the state but residency rules are weird and this may not actually be a crime or change your status. Either way, you should find out and either pay restitution or know where you stand.

Thank you,

Im going to check with my schools office of financial aid to make sure that I had to live at home to receive the scholarship, and I will follow the instructions of the college depending on what they say. My parents don't support me at all, however I recently learned they claimed me on their taxes as a dependent. I don't know how to fix all this but I will do my best, thank you for the reply

Hi guys,


While it may be inconsequential, I have been doing some more research, and I discovered that the scholarship I received did not have a condition I stay at home! I was always under the impression it did. So I suppose that is a good thing. However that doesn't change the fact tht my parents claimed me this past April, as a dependent. So that means they received a tax credit they are not entitled to. Although the amount, I'm not sure, since I'm 20, I don't know if it would be a very large amount. I need to figure out how to pay restitution.

There's that, and also the legal status of my girlfriend( which I hope to change, but "harboring an illegal alien" is in fact a crime I will simply admit to, because. Like I said we have been living together for 8 months.)
)
I just wanted to let you guys know what I had found out, and see if It really changes anything.

You are not accountable for your parents' conduct nor can you speak for them on tax issues. I never asked for an applicant's parents' tax return when doing a background as there is no legal basis for doing so. I am not sure what your concern is here. Again, you are not responsible for their conduct.

As far as the issue with your girlfriend, that will be up to your BI if he inquires as to her status. In the mean time, she needs to work at getting her immigation status cleared up ASAP.

We had consulted various immigration lawyers, marriage is the only way. So I proposed to her. I believe this July it will be official. I'm not worried about that process, we've been dating for a little over 2 years, it's a legitimate marriage.

Thank you very much for your advice L1, you have helped a great deal. See you around.

Thank you,

Im going to check with my schools office of financial aid to make sure that I had to live at home to receive the scholarship, and I will follow the instructions of the college depending on what they say. My parents don't support me at all, however I recently learned they claimed me on their taxes as a dependent. I don't know how to fix all this but I will do my best, thank you for the reply

You lived in their house 8 months ago and were going to school full-time. The concern isn't their tax return though, since you aren't responsible for it. However, your tax return will ask if you can be claimed as a dependent on someone else' return. I'd be inclined to believe that your parents return is correct simply on the basis that they have been doing them longer than you and you appear to have lived more than 6 months in their house in 2011 while attending school full-time. That would mean your return is the one with the problem as they may be entitled to claim you and you would be improperly receiving the personal exemption. You may want to find out if you incorrectly stated you couldn't be claimed as a dependent by someone else from an accountant or your parents or your parents tax preparer if they had one.

Thank you for the response, I filed my taxes with them, I put down how they claimed me. So I think I got back the correct amount. Definiely not much compared what I wouldve got if I wasn't claimed but what can you do lol