Letting a security clearance expire, once you have obtained it is foolish also as the gov't cracks down harder and harder.
Letting a security clearance expire, once you have obtained it is foolish also as the gov't cracks down harder and harder.
While I would hope that firefighters might be held to the same level of scrutiny that a peace officer candidate will, I find no indication in CA law that a potential employer has the legal ability to ask about arrests or that it has a legal requirement to conduct an in-depth background. Sadly, I have found that many departments do not conduct an in-depth background and, instead, too often rely on mostly public records and cursory searches. This may be different in larger departments, but, most fire departments hire infrequently and do not possess the staff to oversee such things so they are either contracted out or inadequately done in-house.
Now, there may be a provision in state law that mandates or allows fire departments to inquire about arrests or get detailed criminal history reports, but I am unable to find any reference to it. As L-1 indicated, they can always find this information out by digging, and depending on the facts can decline to hire the prospective employee. Unfortunately, I don't know how much digging most fire departments will pay for.