Discrimination in BG investigations?

[ef3597]

Hello all...great place...Cutting to the chase...

Here in california when an applicant fails a background investigation we are not told why we failed. Before entering the process they make you sign waivers that state that you wont ask and they(agency) wont tell. So if your a regular kind of person with no obvious reason to fail and your passing interview and polygraph exams, your left wondering what the heck could have been the problem. One cannot help but wonder if there is any discrimination occuring in the background. No pun intended. Maybe LEO can chime in here. I know with smaller departments you may have 100 applicants for 2-3 positions, so Im sure they have to find a way to get rid of the majority of them, so they DQ them. This is what I think happens. Agencies could potentially be getting away with murder(behing the scenes aka backgrounds) and we're the fools signing these releases which is mandatory.
So my question is...is there ANY, I mean ANY way to find out what you were disqualified for? It seems I read somewhere that it was being looked into.

[manahmanah]

What kind of discrimination are you talking about?

[ef3597]

not necessarily talking about racial or any of those. well for any reason they decide they dont like you for example, they didnt like the color of your tie. extreme i know but i think you get my drift.

[phantasm]

If you weren't eliminated because of being a member of a protected group (race, gender, age (other than being outside eligible age), sexual orientation, etc), then its not discrimination

[Citicop]

Not every applicant who meets the minimum qualifications gets hired. If there is someone who, for instance, has prior LE experience when you do not, you may not advance even if there is nothing in your background that would prevent you from hire with that agency.

That's not discrimination.

Citicop.

[Roger Dat]

Its not discrimination its simply selection of the best qualified applicant.

[dkl1986]

Hello all...great place...Cutting to the chase...

Here in california when an applicant fails a background investigation we are not told why we failed. Before entering the process they make you sign waivers that state that you wont ask and they(agency) wont tell. So if your a regular kind of person with no obvious reason to fail and your passing interview and polygraph exams, your left wondering what the heck could have been the problem. One cannot help but wonder if there is any discrimination occuring in the background. No pun intended. Maybe LEO can chime in here. I know with smaller departments you may have 100 applicants for 2-3 positions, so Im sure they have to find a way to get rid of the majority of them, so they DQ them. This is what I think happens. Agencies could potentially be getting away with murder(behing the scenes aka backgrounds) and we're the fools signing these releases which is mandatory.
So my question is...is there ANY, I mean ANY way to find out what you were disqualified for? It seems I read somewhere that it was being looked into.

If you were DQ'd, call them up and politely ask why you were, unless they specifically told you at the beginning that if you were DQ'd they don't want you to ask why.

I got DQ'd from a department I applied for here in CA and they told me why. They were very upfront with me about it. Don't expect that from every dept., though. Some just may not have the time to tell everyone why there were DQ'd.

[mcsap]

Hello all...great place...Cutting to the chase...

Here in california when an applicant fails a background investigation we are not told why we failed. Before entering the process they make you sign waivers that state that you wont ask and they(agency) wont tell. So if your a regular kind of person with no obvious reason to fail and your passing interview and polygraph exams, your left wondering what the heck could have been the problem. Your problem is that YOU think YOU are fully qualified. Why even bother with a BI then ? YOU may in fact have either issues or attributes that do not go along with a good candidate. One cannot help but wonder if there is any discrimination occuring in the background. No pun intended. Maybe LEO can chime in here. I know with smaller departments you may have 100 applicants for 2-3 positions, so Im sure they have to find a way to get rid of the majority of them, so they DQ them. This is what I think happens. Agencies could potentially be getting away with murder(behing the scenes aka backgrounds) and we're the fools signing these releases which is mandatory.
So my question is...is there ANY, I mean ANY way to find out what you were disqualified for? It seems I read somewhere that it was being looked into.

Reply embedded.

[Samuel]

Its not discrimination its simply selection of the best qualified applicant.

I wish that were true... :(

[MarineMp]

In regards to not liking the color of your tie. If you dressed up in bozo the clown suit and went to the interview, do you think that if they said your DQ'd because you look like a clown would be wrong?

[retdetsgt]

HA! Wait until you're hired and then passed over for promotion because you're white and male....... I saw a guy make #1 on the captain's list and although he was well qualified, the chief could pick anyone in the top five. Since there was always a woman or minority in the top 5, he died as #1. Could he do anything about it? Nope..... Ain't no such thing as discriminating us against white males.....;)

[MarineMp]

I work with a retired Detroit Police Officer, He was stuck at Sgt. Due the same example retdetsgt gave. Go to the website and look at the command ranks.

[dkl1986]

I work with a retired Detroit Police Officer, He was stuck at Sgt. Due the same example retdetsgt gave. Go to the website and look at the command ranks.

that's why i ALWAYS put on my employment apps that i'm filipino, even though i look very white (6'2", brown hair, green eyes). if i'm ever asked, it's on my birth cert. that my mom was born in the phillipines.

[Group9]

Yep, welcome to the real world. It works the exact same way for the police that it works everywhere else.

I work for a 6000 sworn personnel agency that is run like the world's largest good old boy network. We don't even try to hide it, and I will admit to having participated in it myself to get promoted.