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  1. #1
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    Dec 2014
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    9

    Default Will an Incident Appear on a Police or Fire Background Check if No Charges Were Filed

    My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: California

    Dear everyone,

    Recently I ran into a incident with law enforcement but no arrest was made, they let me go. If they run or id will that show up on a background investigation for a Fire of Police agency. No arrest was made and I was never in police custody. It was simply them just asking questions. Take care and I look forward to hearing everyone's responses. Thank you

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
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    1,279

    Default Re: Fire/Police Background Investigation

    Most law enforcement agencies have you fill out a personal history questionnaire and administer a polygraph examination as part of the hiring process. One of the questions in the personal history questionnaire (PHQ) asks you to list all police contacts, irrespective of the nature. Another asks if you have ever been detailed or questioned by the police. On the poly they will ask you if you have been completely truthful or withheld anything on during the background process or the PHQ.

    If you are untruthful and fail to disclose the contact in question you will spike on the poly and be DQed on the background for dishonesty, so it doesn't matter what shows up in a local police database.

    Contrary to common belief, honesty and truthfulness is highly important in law enforcement. Officers with integrity issues are worthless as witnesses in court due to something known as the Brady decision and are routinely fired. No one will hire an applicant who is Brady material before they are even on the job. For further information on truthfulness and Brady, read http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/m...ssue_id=102003

  3. #3

    Default Re: Fire/Police Background Investigation

    Some of the answer will depend on where you apply. The first usual step in a background investigation for law enforcement is that the investigator picks up their phone and calls dispatch and says "send me everything you have on John Doe". The dispatcher then looks into the CAD system and forwards information regarding John Doe in ANY way, shape, or form. Whether John was calling in an accident, or asked questions for some reason, or pulled over for having a headlight out, or any other type of contact with that agency. In counties with consolidated CAD systems, every agency in the county or multi-county area would have access to the same info. Best policy, as L-1 notes, is to assume that if you had contact with law enforcement, SOMEONE knows about it. Police agencies know that people have "run ins" with officers for a myriad of reasons, if your particular situation wasn't problematic, then just having the contact shouldn't be an issue if the officers found no reason to take any type of action.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
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    California
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    20,594

    Default Re: Will an Incident Appear on a Police or Fire Background Check if No Charges Were F

    Quote Quoting results1991
    View Post
    My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: California

    Dear everyone,

    Recently I ran into a incident with law enforcement but no arrest was made, they let me go. If they run or id will that show up on a background investigation for a Fire of Police agency. No arrest was made and I was never in police custody. It was simply them just asking questions. Take care and I look forward to hearing everyone's responses. Thank you
    As part of a law enforcement background, we conduct records checks in every place you have ever lived and worked - including cities and counties. Depending upon the jurisdiction and the nature of the records' system there, it might be located when they get in touch with those agencies asking for any contacts they have had with you. If it was simply an FI (field interview) then chances are little will be made of it unless it is a frequent occurrence or is part of a pattern of misbehavior or immaturity they find elsewhere in your background. If the incident was part of a crime report/investigation, then the agency may seek the whole report in order to evaluate your role in the matter. All because there were no charges doesn't mean that you were not culpable of something. For instance, if you were interviewed for battery and you and the other guy both admitted to a drunken brawl but no one wanted to press charges, it would still be of interest to the investigating agency even though there were no charges.

    A fire background may be less intrusive, but it is still possible that they will uncover such a contact.

    A lot depends upon the nature of the contact(s).

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
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    9

    Default Re: Will an Incident Appear on a Police or Fire Background Check if No Charges Were F

    Do police write reports with the individuals name if there was no arrest, or do police only write reports that end with an arrest?

  6. #6
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    Mar 2013
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    Default Re: Will an Incident Appear on a Police or Fire Background Check if No Charges Were F

    Reports are written for non-arrest situations all the time. As cdwjava mentioned, Field Interview cards are routinely filled out when someone is contacted, the name of the person in questioned is indexed in the department's computer system and can be easily found by a background investigator.

    Similarly, if a warranty check is made on someone over the radio or the CAD system, that person's name may be retained in the database and can be easily found.

    Would you care to share what you got into?

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
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    9

    Default Re: Will an Incident Appear on a Police or Fire Background Check if No Charges Were F

    thanks for all the input, after a night of drinking I decided to walk home and I was stopped by the police. They were kind enough to call my mom and have her come pick me up. I am of legal age to drink. It is very embarrassing to have my mother pick me up given my age, but I am very lucky the officers realized I was a good person who didn't make the right decision. A cab or uber like service was not readily available in my suburban town.

  8. #8
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    Mar 2013
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    Default Re: Will an Incident Appear on a Police or Fire Background Check if No Charges Were F

    How long ago did this occur?

  9. #9

    Default Re: Will an Incident Appear on a Police or Fire Background Check if No Charges Were F

    You need to realize that writing an actual report is only one of MANY ways that an encounter with law enforcement is documented. The majority of police contacts DONT involve a report; they simply involve an officer talking with and/or checking on a person (such as checking the status of a drivers license or seeing if the person has any warrants, which is standard for ANY contact). ALL of those are documented in the dispatch/CAD system, whether the officer ever writes a report or not.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Posts
    9

    Default Re: Will an Incident Appear on a Police or Fire Background Check if No Charges Were F

    thanks for the insight. I'm not going through a background process anytime soon, hopefully some agencies purge their system after a certain amount of time.

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