A background that is less than stellar, need some opinions!

[jbadoef0607]

I must apologize ahead of time for the length of this post, this is just to go into detail about my background and get some opinions from a hiring perspective. Although I'll leave out personal details but I do want to bring to light some things that will come up during the course of a background investigation by a hiring agency. I am scheduled for an oral board interview (posted that in another thread), but I have questions about my background from a LEO stand-point. So here it is.

-The Good
Nearly 8 years military service with 2 combat tours, plus medals that were awarded (although I didn't think they were necessary being that I just simply did my job overseas).
A strong desire to help people all over regardless of circumstance (isn't that why someone would want to be a LEO in the first place? LOL)
A strong sense of loyalty and dedication to duty.
Improving credit (recently found out it went to 620, woohoo!)
Debt diminishing (was nearly $25,000. Now down to only $11,000. sweetness!)
Good GPA (not great, but good, 2.58)
Great Physical Condition (Army PT tests, and LEO Physical Tests)

-The Bad
Driving Record;
2002, 2003, 2005 Speeding. 2005 and 2006 Driving While Suspended/Driving While Uninsured (guess those are mandatory if your license was suspended). In compliance 2006 and Reinstated 2007 (was on leave from Afghanistan, otherwise would have had it reinstated much sooner). Illegal U-turn 2007. Accident at Fault 2002, Accident at Fault 2008.
Collection Accounts (already mentioned that they were diminishing, so making a complete effort to pay them off, was immature at the time they happened and now literally and figuratively paying for them)
Spotty Employment, schools and deployments kinda make it hard to hold onto a job, despite federal laws.

-The Ugly
2002 Was accused of Rape by an ex, it was deemed unfounded. My girlfriend at the time was 16 and I had just turned 18 so I broke it off, that's the law isn't it? LOL
2005 Was accused of Rape by a girl I had met at college, to make a long story short, they found inconsistencies in her story and she almost instantly backed out and didn't want to push it any further. From what a friend told me was that she didn't want to get charged with falsifying a police report so she backed out. The detective who was in contact with me confirmed that.
2009 Was a witness to a crime against someone I was close to, the ADA wanted to use me in court but later decided that my testimony wasn't needed.

I have already passed the cursory background that I'm sure most agencies do, so I'm not sure if assuming they have already done the checks on my DMV record or not. I know that they check to see if you've been arrested or have commited a felony or certain DQ'ing misdemeanors. Or have been to jail. I have already made it this far, but my question is, if I made it this far with your Agency and passed the interview, would it still be possible for me to get hired despite what I've just listed? Or would I need to wait a heck of a lot longer before being considered. I know each agency is different and each applicant is weighed based on the circumstances surrounding his/her incidents (if there are any).

So I'm just wanting to get an overall opinion. I've gotten a general idea about what to expect based on other posts but I know each person is different, so based on your experience, would I still be considered? Or dropped like a sack of potatoes? Will the results of my interview also be weighed?

I also must point out that the Officer who was reviewing my Personal History Questionnaire was a bit floored about how brutally honest I was especially over the phone, of course always being respectful to her. I held no punches about my background, told her what happened and admitted that I didn't make mistakes but I had made decisions that happened to be bad ones but if I had the opportunity to do them over again, I would more than likely have handled each situation differently. I'm not sure if my honesty helped me in my situation but hey, at least I can say that I've been completely and totally honest throughout the ENTIRE application process. (so I don't really think the polygraph, should I get that far, be too much of an issue other than being slightly nervous having never gone through one before. )

So again, I apologize for the long post, but thank you for taking the time to read and in giving your responses and opinions. I respect the profession greatly and have a really really strong drive to become a LEO and to serve my community, again helping as much people as I can regardless of their circumstances.

Justin

[Kimble]

-The Ugly
2002 Was accused of Rape by an ex, it was deemed unfounded. My girlfriend at the time was 16 and I had just turned 18 so I broke it off, that's the law isn't it? LOL
2005 Was accused of Rape by a girl I had met at college, to make a long story short, they found inconsistencies in her story and she almost instantly backed out and didn't want to push it any further. From what a friend told me was that she didn't want to get charged with falsifying a police report so she backed out. The detective who was in contact with me confirmed that.
2009 Was a witness to a crime against someone I was close to, the ADA wanted to use me in court but later decided that my testimony wasn't needed.

The 2009 incident is neutral, nothing "ugly" about being a witness as long as you're not a co-suspect in the process.

Being accussed of rape not once but twice is going to be reviewed thoroughly during a background investigation, and without the actual police reports in front of me I'm not able to make a call on how much this would impact your ability to gain a job in law enforcement. Expect these incidents to be reviewed completely, as your side of the story (even if charges were dropped and you weren't convicted) is not sufficient to make a reasonable determination of whether you had any wrongdoing.

[jbadoef0607]

Luckily I was able to get a copy of all my police contacts, negative or otherwise, to include those two accusations. The 2009 incident was something that happened to a friend, no wrong doing on my part or my friend. She was a victim and I witnessed what happened to her. Now for the other two. The first time according to the report was a simple case of girl getting mad at her ex for dumping her because she was under 18. The second of course I didn't do any wrong at all. According to the report in the first page which states her side made me sound like a big piece of dog pile. Then they questioned me and of course I was cooperative and very candid about the whole incident. According to the report once they went back to her to explain some of the inconsistencies in her story she either avoided the questions or lied about specific details. So when pressured about why she lied about those details she backed out and said she wasn't going to cooperate further. Basically to make a long story short they asked why her friend who was a guy allow me to rape her and not do anything about it. Her friend reported that we just simply had sex and got mad when I failed to call her. So the detective said if she kept pushing then she could likely be charged with falsifying a police report.
I honestly would not want to do anything which would endanger my career in the military so I cooperated in every step and was very honest during questioning. Which was noted in the police report.
Hope that gives a bit more insight into the details of the situation.

[Ispbear]

The Rape alligations look extremely bad but may be easily explianed with a detailed police report, however the driving record on top of that shows a great amount of immaturity. I would say you need a few more years of to show you've matured.

[mcsap]

The traffic offenses will bruise you. The rape allegations will case you to be looked at CLOSELY. The credit issues will be considered.

Your honorable service is GOOD and time will be your friend.

Cease and desist on getting tickets. Go out and do some POSITIVE things in your community. ( volunteer or ?? ) Start WORKING on making you a better candidate instead of just hoping and waiting.

[jbadoef0607]

The traffic offenses will bruise you. The rape allegations will case you to be looked at CLOSELY. The credit issues will be considered.

Your honorable service is GOOD and time will be your friend.

Cease and desist on getting tickets. Go out and do some POSITIVE things in your community. ( volunteer or ?? ) Start WORKING on making you a better candidate instead of just hoping and waiting.

Indeed. I have most certainly ceased my former driving habits since 2006, other than the u-turn in 2007 I have matured in that respect. Or at least I feel that I have. But it'll be up to the hiring officer to make that determination. As far as doing something positive I have signed up to volunteer at a juvenile facility and signed up to be a mentor at the local boys and girls club here locally but just waiting on call backs for those. Turned them in yesterday. I signed up not because I wanted to boost my own self image but because I genuinely want to help out the kids in my community. They are far more important than any single one of us.