Quote Quoting Disagreeable
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In the old days, they used to have high standards because business owners gave them a key to their businesses. I have no clue what decade that stopped.
They can still hold those standards. However, the law limits the information that can be specifically requested from applicant and how it might be used, and it also limits who is required to provide what info. For instance, under CA law I can effectively mandate that an applicant's past or present employer provide me with details of their employment history, but, I know of no equivalent law for background investigations of fire service employees. The information might still be uncovered, but, it would involve a more roundabout method as discussed by L-1.

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Quote Quoting flyingron
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The fire service pretty universally switched to Knox boxes probably 30 years ago.
Yep. And many police agencies have keys to these as well.

These are controlled key boxes that allow the fire department to obtain access to the boxes. Your rank and file member doesn't have access to it, only the officers and most departments have rather strict controls on this. However, I can tell that 9 times out of 10, we don't even use them, we just break in. I've got a thing called a K-tool than can rip a lockset out of the door in short order. I also know a number of way to defeat most retail store doors (cheesy). There's always axes and other implements of destruction.
Fire guys are great for that! They can get into most anything! It might not be pretty, but, they get in!