By Dr. Chuck Russo , Programme Manager of Criminal Justice at American Military University

For five years, I served as the groundwork investigator at a canton sheriff's department. Later that, I was hired by a municipal police department and was immediately assigned equally their background investigator for the next iii years before finally escaping the office to return to road patrol.

Oft, 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 fourth dimension to explain the background investigation process to individuals applying for jobs in law enforcement and corrections. While each department may conduct the background investigation a chip differently, there are many commonalities that apply to all criminal justice agencies.

Step one: The Application Process

First y'all must decide to submit an awarding for a sworn position with an agency. If your application is incomplete, you may receive a letter saying so, along with another awarding package to complete. However, in some agencies, the application is logged every bit incomplete and you will never hear from that bureau once more.

If the application is complete when it comes into the role, it is oft logged into a groundwork investigation spreadsheet and the background investigator starts a folder for your application.

Footstep 2: Background Investigator Initial Screening Process

The background investigator now gets to work. He or she will begin by first pulling all your records. If the agency is simply hiring personnel who have already enrolled in or completed the police enforcement academy for part-fourth dimension/full-time positions and for those without the academy civilian officeholder positions (traffic control specialists), the groundwork investigator will go into the country's police force enforcement/corrections record management system (e.g. Florida'southward Automated Grooming Management System, ATMS). Investigators will use these databases to check your bureau employment history and your state certification.

These records show the background investigator all the agencies you lot have worked for in the land, if whatever, and the reason for separation (voluntary separation, terminated, under investigation). If your tape shows "terminated" or "under investigation" the background investigator will ofttimes contact the agency to determine the cause of separation.

If you are a male, the background investigator will check to see if you have registered for the Selective Service. The groundwork investigator will then run your name through the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) as well as the land database (e.g. FCIC in Florida) to see if you have any criminal history.

The investigator will also pull your driver license history to see what violations you accept collected. If you take a staple in your driver license history—meaning in that location's more than one page—that is not good as it often indicates a DUI, break, or insurance issues.

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

If you lot were prior military, the investigator will send for your records. At this point, if y'all are non certified as an officer or were terminated for cause or nigh to be terminated for crusade, if you lot are not registered for Selective Service and should be, if you accept a criminal history, take issues with your driver license history, or your report does not match with your application, generally the background investigator will stop processing your application and issue you lot a "thank you, but no thank you" letter.

Step iii: In-Person Interviews with Department Officers

If you pass the previous phase, you lot will move on if the agency has an opening. The background investigator may start this phase with an oral interview. Typically the background investigator does not participate in the oral interview, but may escort you into the interview and remain in the room during the interview.

You will be asked a serial of questions and the bureau will gauge your responses. "The bureau" may consist of a line employee (officer/deputy), a supervisor (corporal/sergeant), a director (lieutenant/helm), or some variation of these ranks/individuals. Those in the interview will issue a score and a "aye" or "no" response.

A "no" means you become a "thanks, but no thanks alphabetic character." A score and "yeah" ways the background investigator has more work to do and thus he or she begins the side by side phase of the investigation process.

Footstep 4: Checking Your References

The background investigator volition start the process past contacting your references, checking your places of employment, and contacting your neighbors. Their goal at this phase is to confirm the data you have cocky-reported and find out more than about you.

He/she will contact the police force enforcement agencies where yous live/take lived and enquire them to check their records for whatsoever contacts with you. The background investigator volition contact all agencies you have worked for either past telephone or in person and pull your employment jacket.

This stage requires a lot of work and takes fourth dimension to consummate. The groundwork investigator plays a lot of phone tag with people—leaving messages back and forth—

and does a bit of driving in some cases. During this phase, the background investigator may besides drib by and meet you without warning to verify how you live.

He/she may too contact university instructors and fifty-fifty your erstwhile 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, so he/she volition likely send you a "thanks, but no cheers" letter. Sometimes he/she may "know" something isn't correct, only has non been able to plough up any show. When this occurs, he/she will dig deeper and deeper until what is giving him/her that uneasy feeling is discovered or discounted.

Stride 5: Medical, Polygraph and Psychological Exams

If you have made it this far, consider yourself in really good shape as the vast majority of applicants do non get to this phase. Now begins the side by side stage of the process: your medical screening, drug screening, polygraph and psychological exam.

Your psychological test may exist a paper and pencil 150+ question test and an interpretation session with a doctor, which will generate a report to the agency. The information in the report may vary from a matrix that ranks you in one of three categories (low risk, medium risk, and high take chances) to a paragraph that states the individual is accounted "fit" or "unfit" for the duties and responsibilities of the position.

Agencies want depression take chances, they don't desire high take a chance, and they will often take a adept expect at medium risk scores. Loftier-take a chance individuals have a probability of finding themselves on the forepart page of the newspaper and non for good reasons. Medium-take a chance individuals may get on that forepart page, while low-risk individuals have a probability of being on the forepart page, merely for the skillful reasons.

The medical and drug screen are pretty cutting and dry out–no drugs in your system and yous will not drop dead tomorrow. The question to be answered is: "Are you able to physically perform the tasks associated with existence a sworn officeholder?"

The polygraph consists of an extensive interview followed by the zipper of sensors to the body. The interviewer asks a serial of questions and observes the results on the polygraph. If no charade is reported and no new information emerges from this process, you are good to be hired for a position. If the bureau has more successful applicants than openings, they then brand a decision on who to rent total-fourth dimension and who may receive offers for reserve/office-fourth dimension positions.

Determination

Going through the awarding process for a police enforcement position is a rigorous and time-consuming process. While each agency does things a flake differently, the procedure is by and large the aforementioned. Every fourth dimension a background investigator picks upward or handles your awarding, you run the gamble of getting a "thanks, but no thanks" letter. It is very like shooting fish in a barrel to get ane of those letters–much easier than it is to successfully arrive through the process.

About the Writer:   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, as well as deed every bit a consultant for instruction, government and industry throughout the Us and the Middle East.

Dr. Russo earned his Master of Arts degree in education in 1995 and Master of Science degree in criminal justice in 1996 from the University of Fundamental Florida. He earned his doctoral degree in public affairs at the Academy of Central Florida in 2006. His enquiry focuses on emerging applied science and law enforcement applications.