I just honestly think you need to find a less hypocritical department.  When I sat on hiring boards, I always knew people were not perfect and that they could change for the better.  All I looked for was honesty.  Unfortunately, when someone claims they are honest and you are looking over their hiring packet or interviewing them and you find out that they omitted a job or failed to mention a ticket, it immediately sparks doubt in your mind that they are being truly honest with you.  Granted, they may have not mentioned it due to human error, but we do expect people to be thorough with their background packets.

Perhaps, some liars do get through the process, it is unfortunate and regretable.  But would you not rather get hired and not have to look over your back?  Remember, often times IA will run a background on an officer in the force 4 or 10 or 15 years after he was hired and crap that they omitted may come up and bite them in the ass.

Vet, 

I will def. let you know. It sounds like chances are since i was honest initially with most of the dept's i applied to, that in the end that info will get back to these dept's. but i was guessing that would happen anyway. your friends were smart enough to lie in the first place which is something neither I (or you) did--thinking honest WAS the best policy. but now that my background info is out there I'll probably have to continue putting all that stuff down in the future, if i get DQed from the current Dept. that i'm applying to. I will let you know if things work out though so that you can decide for yourself what to do in the future. 

and for all the other people who replied, thank you. i understand that lying is not a good way to start a career in LE. and i dont want to, nor did i when i first started. but to be shot down time and again when you're extremely qualified...well, needless to say it makes you want to try something different, even if it was a mistake this time.

I have pretty much the same problem you do. If it makes you feel any better I know about three cops who completely ommitted everything and had no problems. It made me mad because I lost out due to my honesty. The dept that hired them was a city dept in bad need for officers so maybe that was why they had no problems. I'm not saying that is what you should do...just throwing it out there. If you could let me know how it turns out for you. Good luck

migaveli wrote on Jun 29^th, 2006 at 10:36pm:

Unfortunately you are not in charge of the hiring process.  However, you are in charge of what you do.  Why would you choose to lie when telling the truth is not the problem?

Tell the truth and don’t withhold any information on your BI and on your polygraph.  If you haven’t done anything to disqualify then you can hold your head high even if the polygraph operator decides you “showed deception.”

Lots of people tell the truth and “fail” anyway.  You won’t make your situation any better by getting frustrated and deciding to lie about everything on your next application.  Just keep telling the truth and doing your best.  In the end that’s really all any of us can do.

dimas,

i understand that lying is no way to start a career in law enforcement. but why dont you tell me why the system is set up to screw over truthful people?...by using the polygraph. how about just doing a really really in depth background instead of relying on pseudoscience that ruins lives? i told the truth 100% with the first dept's I applied to and both times I got screwed on the polygraph when i was telling the truth. of course honesty is important, but i had to try something new when being honest wasn't working. simple as that.

Migaveli,

It would appear that you are out of luck this time.  I cannot say for sure that submitting the extra info will help, but if you have not had your background investigation started it may be beneficial to be forthcoming with the information before they actually find out about it.

I have said this quite a few times on this board and will say it again.  Lying is no way to start a career in law enforcement.   

Good luck

Would it be worth adding the old background info that i had originally put at the two dept's i failed the polygraph at to the current dept's i'm appplying to and sending that information in? (even though i already sent them one background without that info) and simply admit that i made a mistake and explain why i did it? or am i just out of luck this time around pretty much?

O'well, I guess I'm out of luck this time around. I figured since telling the truth didn't work twice b/c of failed polygraphs (which i was telling the truth on), that i'd try the opposite---not telling the truth. But thanks for the info guys..live and learn, ya know. I guess it'll be uncomfortable when they ask me about that. o'well.

Most PD's do share info, what is looked at the most is what you told one and not another...just make sure all your info is the same for all of them...
Good Luck,
Dennis

obviously I can't speak for every Agency, but I can tell you, we do.

Good luck

I am wondering if there are any individuals who are aware of how much access one police dept. has to a person's background packet which was submitted to another, unrelated, police deparmtnent. I know that they often claim that they will contact the other department, but how likely is it that a police dept., after disqualifying you because of a failed polygraph, will keep your information/background on file? 

I ask this b/c I applied to a couple of PD's about a year ago and admitted some minor infractions (shoplifting an item of about $10 several years ago, fake idea, etc.). I then failed my polygraph on questions that were completely unrelated to my admissions and to which i was NOT lying. Recently I have applied to a couple of other agencies and this time I actually DID omit my minor infractions on the background. My rationale for doing this being that the other dept's had used those VERY minor infractions as the excuse for not hiring me--their exact wording "judgement" (i did great, even by the officer's own admissions on the scenarios, so the "judgement" was unrelated to any error's in judgement I could have made during the oral board). Anyway, I am now worried that I will be excused of lying, which technically, I suppose, I did on the more recent backgrounds. But I only did so b/c of my previous experiences with the polygraph and how it completely DQed me, despite my qualifications. 

That's about it. So, again, my question is: Do police dept's usually actually follow up and contact other PD's you applied to? Do other dept's actually keep background packets on file? Or is it likely that those were destroyed and I won't be seen?