Worst Applicant Background You've seen hired

[deskjockey]

This is just a quick question that I felt would amuse some people if nothing else. To those of you who are already on the job or background investigators, what are some of the details for the worst background for an applicant who was hired that you have come across. How did the applicant overcome these bad background instances to still get the job?

[corporal716]

How did the applicant overcome these bad background instances to still get the job?

Simple, they did not have any disqualifying events in their past.

[insanediplomat]

I think he wants to know if anyone with a questionable background has made it through.

[NYSPhopeful]

Im not a police officer yet, but I started processing for NYPD during processing for NYSP(eventually withdrew NYPD) and at the medical there were several people doing the initial character review who were arrested in the past and they made it to the next phase. Whether they made it through the entire process I really don't know, but they made it through the initial character assessment.

[Nole795]

We had a police dispatcher who was hired, she passed the background check. While in the training phase they had to learn to run the criminal check database. They learn by running their own names. Lo and behold, there was a warrant for the dispatcher for PWBC (Passing worthless Bank Checks) issued a few days earlier.

Sucked to be her that day.

[spitfire]

I knew someone who had committed armed robbery multiple times as a juvenile who got hired as a school cop. His BI never learned of it because his record had been sealed & he was able to pass the polygraph because of the time frame the questions were asked in.

Of course, he got fired a month later and not because of his past criminal history, but because a woman filed harassment charges on him. A real winner...

The moral of the story is that if someone who shouldn't be a cop somehow makes it through the process & gets hired, they will usually end up getting weeded out sooner or later, either as a result of their own sheer stupidity or because the truth comes out about their past or current indiscretions.

[SP44]

If you want interesting backgrounds, I bet the 'funnier' stories come from those who were NOT hired.

"I just got out of jail for carjacking. But it wasn't my fault! Can I become a cop now?"

Those ones.

[electrojuice]

Even with all the interviews and background checks there's always going to be people who "slip through the cracks" so to speak. I've seen it on occasion but it is just a product of the application process. And the polygraph won't do a lick of good trying to crack the most hardened of sociopaths. As far as what I've seen people get away with and still get into law enforcement, it mostly consists of the use of narcotics (and driving while under the infuence of alcohol). If an applicant doesn't feel guilty of his/her illicit drug usage in the recent past then its likely not going to show up during the interviews/polygraph. And I'm sure a lot of issues don't get addressed during backgrounds.

My advice for dealing with past negative experiences would be this: before applying make sure you deal with it if possible. If there's stolen property, get rid of it. Drug usage, recognize that it was a mistake and in the past, maybe it was a learning experience for you I dunno. But when you talk to a recruiter about it, the most important thing you can do is be honest. They understand that poeple make mistakes, its how you deal with it afterwards that counts. That being said, somethings will get you a lifetime deferral and there's no way around it.

[Valor55]

My polygraph examiner told me he had a guy admit to sexual relations with a box turtle.

Another guy admitted smoking dope. In the parking lot. Just before the polygraph. So he could relax for the test.

None of them were hired.

[electrojuice]

Yeah some of those polygraph questions are a little odd. I had a hard time trying not to laugh.

"Uhh...Mr Smith have you ever had sexual relations with a fur bearing animal?" :eek:

[Odin]

In June of 2000, Derrick Evans, a black man, applied to the Dallas Police Department. He stated on his application that he had never been arrested. He was admitted to the academy. While in the academy the DPD learned that he had been arrested for public intoxication. Lying on an application is grounds for immediate dismissal from the academy, and the academy commanders recommended that he be dismissed. A Hispanic commander under the chief and the black Chief of Police overruled, and Evans was allowed to remain in the academy. He performed poorly in the academy and had to be "recycled" through the academy in order to pass.

As a police recruit, while Evans was still in the academy his name came up as a suspect in a murder investigation (the victim was an acquaintance of the recruit's girlfriend and the recruit was placed in the area having a confrontation with the victim on the night of the murder). Homicide investigators and internal affairs investigators had recruit Evans take a polygraph exam (which is standard procedure for any recruit or officer under investigation) and they questioned him about the murder. To the question "Did you kill Simuel Huey, Jr." the officer answered "No" and his answer was found to be "not truthful". However, there was no physical evidence to charge the recruit with in the murder. Investigators recommended that the recruit be terminated. Chief Bolton's staff of black administrators overruled and the recruit was allowed to remain and graduate from the academy. His failed polygraph was common knowledge in the department, a real morale booster for all of the good officers in the department I'm sure.

In the summer of 2003 officer Evans' stepdaughter came home and said that some kids had beat her up. Rather than call a marked unit to meet him there officer Evans rounded up 15 relatives, armed with baseball bats and screwdrivers, and drove to the scene of the alleged fight. Upon arrival, officer Evans, wearing baggy pants, a muscle shirt and his badge around his neck and walking with his pistol in his hand, confronted the crowd. The situation escalated. Officer Evans claims that a 19 year old pointed a gun at him so he fired at the 19 year old several times, striking him once.

A few days later, the Dallas Morning News learned that in addition to his arrest for being drunk and his failing a polygraph that asked him if he committed murder, officer Evans was twice the subject of an emergency restraining order placed on him by a judge when his ex-wife sought relief from his assaults. He failed to mention this in is application according to police officials, and the Dallas police would have the public believe that they were unable to find out this information that the Dallas Morning News discovered using only public records. When the Dallas Morning News confronted the chief with this info the chief ordered officer Evans into an IA meeting, which lasted 14 hours and cost the taxpayers thousands of dollars in overtime, and fired the officer at 6:30am on Saturday. The chief only fired the officer because the paper threatened to run the story and the chief wanted to fire the officer before the story ran. Dallas police claim that they fired Evans for displaying his weapon in a manner that would alarm the public (not for lying on his application, flunking the academy, being a suspect in a murder investigation or wading into a riot and shooting a teenager).

The Chief of Police at the time, Terrell Bolton, and his staff of commanders were black, as was officer Evans.

I'll let you figure out how the applicant overcame these bad background instances to still got the job.

Ain't affirmative action grand?

[Valor55]

Sounds like a wonderful civil lawsuit to me. Negligent Retention. Somebody ought to own that city by now.

[Odin]

Sounds like a wonderful civil lawsuit to me. Negligent Retention. Somebody ought to own that city by now.

Somebody does own that city, which is why I moved to the suburbs. It's the wrong people that own the city, unfortunately. That's just one of dozens of stories like this from the Dallas PD. Their new chief is making a little progress, but then there was no place to go but up, so it would be hard not to make progress.

[MORA Ranger]

This is all rather fascinating, but I can't get over Valor's comment about someone claiming to have had "sexual relations" with a box turtle. Perhaps I have not watched enough (OK, never watched any) porn involving animals, but I am not quite able to wrap my mind around how exactly one could have sexual relations with a box turtle. Maybe I don't really want to know... This is a PG-13 site.

[Bearcat06]

I know Kansas City MO PD has had people apply that they have arrested at the test site for warrants when they were ran as they took the test....