HOW TO PASS THE POLICE BACKGROUND INVESTIGATION

the police background investigation: a crucial step in the hiring process

What are police background investigators looking for during the background investigation? It’s simple, we are looking to see if the candidate is person who falls within the California POST Hiring Dimensions. Oftentimes candidates will have questions as to whether something in their past would disqualify them from being hired. There are very few automatic disqualifiers in the hiring process. One automatic disqualifier would be dishonestly. Put plainly, if you lie during the hiring process, it will be discovered, and you will be disqualified. To determine your suitability for hire, lets first look at the hiring dimensions. To be hired as a police officer or public safety dispatcher in California, applicants must have a background history that demonstrates suitability in the following criteria. Here at the Santa Clara Police Department we think all of our employees should have stellar backgrounds so we apply the same high standard to all of our applicants regardless of which position they are applying for.

California POST Hiring Dimensions

MORAL CHARACTER

1. Integrity

• Honesty

• Impartiality

• Trustworthiness

• Protection of Confidential Information

• Moral/Ethical Behavior 

2. Impulse Control/Attention to Safety

• Safe Driving Practices

• Attention to Safety

• Impulse/Anger Control

 3. Substance Abuse and Other Risk-Taking Behavior

HANDLING STRESS AND ADVERSITY

4. Stress Tolerance

• Positive Attitude and Even Temper

• Stress Tolerance and Recovery

• Accepting Responsibility for Mistakes

 5. Confronting and Overcoming Problems, Obstacles, and Adversity

WORK HABITS

6. Conscientiousness

• Dependability/Reliability

• Personal Accountability and Responsibility

• Safeguarding and Maintaining Property, Equipment, and Belongings

• Orderliness, Thoroughness, and Attention to Detail

• Initiative and Drive

• General Conscientiousness

INTERACTIONS WITH OTHERS

7. Interpersonal Skills

• Social Sensitivity

• Social Interest and Concern

• Tolerance

• Social Self-Confidence/Persuasiveness

• Teamwork

 INTELLECTUALLYBASED ABILITIES

8. Decision-Making and Judgment

• Situation/Problem Analysis

• Adherence to Policies and Regulations

• Response Appropriateness

• Response Assessment

 9. Learning Ability

10. Communication Skills

• Oral Communication

• Written Communication

Does this mean that candidates have to be perfect and never have made any mistakes?

Absolutely not. we hire humans and humans make mistakes. Everyone we hire has something embarrassing or regretful in their background. Often times having a past and learning from it is what gives a person some perspective and helps them grow. We don’t expect our candidates to be perfect, but we do expect that they learned from their mistakes and made positive changes to avoid future mistakes. We look at every candidate as a complete person who isn’t necessarily defined by their past. But, it will 100% be up to you to explain your past, how you have learned from it, and how you meet the criteria to be hired.

HOW ARE THE HIRING DIMENSIONS DIFFERENT FOR other POSITIONS?

The hiring dimensions listed above were specifically designed for police officer and public safety officer candidates. However, we use a similar criterion to evaluate our employees for other positions such as Records Specialists, Community Service Officers and Office Specialists. The reason we do that is we firmly believe all of the positions within out department are vital and every employee must have an exemplary background.

HOW WE WILL EVALUATE ISSUES IN YOUR BACKGROUND

If you are like most candidates, there is something in your past that you are a little concerned about. It is something that you are not proud of and you wish it didn’t happen. It has you wondering if you will be hired and you’d like someone to just tell you whether or not it is a deal-breaker. Perhaps you cheated on test, stole something, got into a fight, used drugs, or even were arrested. do those things preclude you from ever being hired at a law enforcement agency? The answer is: it depends. We evaluate each issue based on the totality of the circumstances and consider the following:

1) When did the issue happen? For example was it 10 years ago or last week?

2) How old you were at the time? More leeway is given to a mistake you made when you were a teenager versus one you made as an adult.

4) Was it an isolated event or a pattern? A few traffic tickets when you were younger is a lot different than receiving a traffic ticket every few years since you started driving.

STILL WONDERING HOW A PATICULAR ISSUE WILL IMPACT YOUr BACKGROUND INVESTIGATION?

We would be happy to speak with you about your particular issue but please note that we cannot give you a definitive answer whether or not an issue would prevent you from being hired. Instead, we will simply guide you through the California POST Hiring Dimensions listed above to help you reflect on whether or not you meet those criteria. For example, let’s say a prospective candidate named Neal was once convicted of DUI and also fired from a job. Neal now wants to become a police officer, but he is not sure how those incidents will impact his chance of being hired. Here is what our recruiters would explain to Neal:

“Neal, neither having a DUI conviction nor being fired from a job is in and of itself a disqualifier. However, each of those factors would be carefully scrutinized in the background process and may in fact be the reason you would not be selected for hire. As much as I’d like to give you a definite answer ahead of time, the truth is that we don’t know how a particular issue affects your suitability for hire until we have a chance to complete a comprehensive investigation.”

With that in mind, if you would still like to speak to a member of our Hiring/Recruiting Team, please click here.