I recently applied for a major city police department.  I was ranked #2 and was set up to take my polygraph.  I went to the captain and asked to talk to him in confidence.  I told him that 3 years ago while I was in college, I had a buddy that talked me into doing steroids with him to get bigger.  He had bought some from his buddy and they were in the pill form.  I told the captain that I took these pills for a week, while doing research on steroids.  I found out about all of the bad things it does to your body and stopped using them.  My buddies kept doing them for a long time.  I asked the captain if this would disqualify me, because if it would, then I just wanted to drop my application and not even bother taking the polygraph because I didn't want to lie.  He told me he would check with his chief and call me on monday.  This concerned me so much, that I called up my old buddies from the other city where I used to live, and asked them about the steroids that we had bought a long time ago.  He told me that it had turned out that the guy wasn't selling steroids.  He was just telling people he had steroids and it wasn't steroids at all.  Well, this all made a lot of since, because none of us who took those pills saw any changes in our bodies while working out.  When I talked to the captain the next monday, he told me that I was disqualified.  Even after I told him the story of what had happened.  I guess he didn't believe me.  He told me any other place that calls him doing a background check he is going to tell them that I was disqualified for drug use.  Now, that is a bunch of bullshit because I came to him in confidence and told him there was no use in me continuing if that instance would disqualify me.  And it turns out, I didn't even do any drugs.  The captain said, you are just relying on your friend that says the other guy didn't really sell steroids.  I was so upset about this whole situation that I decided to drive 7 hours to this other city.  I found the guy that had sold us the supposed "steroids".  I explained my situation to him and he admitted that he had never sold steroids, he was selling androstenedione.  Which is legal.  Can this captain actually tell other police forces that I was disqualified for drug use.  Even though I never did drugs.  Our talk was supposed to be in confidence.  I pulled the guy asside and talked to him after the physical agility test to see if I should go any further in the testing procedure.  What a jackass. Other applicatons for other police forces ask you if you have applied for other police forces.  Should I put this department down?  Will they catch me if I don't?  I don't want this jackass captain telling lies about me!  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I kind of had the same thing happen to me so I will tell you what I did and it worked.  Every few years the recruit academy will have new officers fill in the positions.  Re-apply then.  Act as if you are just applying for the position just like everyone else.  When you get to the 1st contact interview they will find your old file and say, "you were previously disqualified, what for?".  If they look they will know why but will ask you anyhow.  Tell them that you took Andro's and misunderstood that it was steroids and admitted to this.  Tell them you found out later that Andro's are legal, etc.  Then tell them you are prepared to take the polygraph to prove what you are saying is true (admit that you believe in the thing 100%). 

This should clear everything up just like in my case.  This might work if you try it now but it might not because the Captain doesn't want to look like he's flip-flopping.  If you choose this route, be prepared to answer a lot of questions about drug use on the polygraph exam.  Good Luck and stay persistent, police departments like this because it shows your dedication.

Well thanks for all of the responses.  It looks as if I will not be recieving any type of police job in the area.  This guy has labeled me as a major drug user.  I went and talked to this captain a couple of days ago, and the guy went crazy.  I have never seen anyone act like this before in my life.  I guess he was upset that I questioned him.  He told me I was a liar.  He also said that I am the scum of the earth, I make him sick to his stomach, he hopes I never get a fu**ing job, and if it is up to him I will not ever get hired on with any police force.  (All of this was said while he was beating the hell out of his desk and throwing things across the room.)  And to tell you the truth I never did anything to provoke him.  I was calm, curtious, and very polite.  The only thing I asked him was why he told me that on my file it would say "Didn't finish the testing procedure" and instead it says, "Disqualified for illegal drug use."  I really believe that this captain was trying to get me to fight him so that he could throw me in jail.  He got all in my face and definately tested me to my limits.  I stayed calm and just told him "I'm sorry you feel that way."  And walked out. Oh well, I guess my hopes of being a police officer are gone.  I guess it is time to use that college degree to do something else.  Again, thanks for the comments.  And if anyone ever decides to go try to be a police officer at Mesquite.  Think again.  At least if captain Oleish hasn't died of a heart attack yet.

Edward,

As the recruiter for the Texarkana, Texas Police Department, I am confident, based on what you have written here, that the problem/situation you had with Mesquite would not eliminate you from our hiring process.  There would be questions certainly, but as the attorney in a previous reply mentioned, if you submitted a complete written explanation of the circumstances you should have no problems. If you would like to discuss this further, please contact me via email. Our hiring system is fair. Yes, we do use polygraph in the process, but our approach uses common sense as well.

I am sorry to hear about what happened to you.  However it is definitely not the end of the world, most Police departments don't work "together" often times my experience has been that they down right dislike each other, and quite frankly even if you did apply somewhere else I doubt that they could get their hands on any paperwork you turned in.  It also seems to me that you never signed anything saying you used steroids, that you merely spoke of it with this man proves nothing.   

On another note I have a real hard time believing that any other Police department would even be able find out that you applied with that department unless of course you told them about it. There is no nation wide database of police applicants that they can access, the only way I can even think off that they can find out is if this department ran an FBI background (you would know because you would of had to fill out a card with your fingerprints on it) on you and the other department checks with the FBI to see who has run backgrounds on you.  I seriously doubt they even did that, a lot of departments that rely on Polygraphs usually do real shoddy background investigations as they expect the Poly to do all their work.
Then again all this does require you to lie, so ultimately the decision is up to you, I personally see it more as an ommision than a lie(it's not like you really broke the law or anything)

Good luck in whatever path you choose.

I realize that some departments may offer themselves a hand, an example being is a background examiner contacting an agency for which you applied with before and asking to see your file.  However the only reason this background investigator know about you applying at this agency is because you told him so!  I really do think we give our law enforcement agencies too much credit in believing they can find out all these things about us, heck they have a hard enough time catching felons (ever wonder why we need americas most wanted on TV to catch these guys? or how many of us have heard the one about the cop stopping the criminal, running his license and then letting him go because nothing comes up only to find out at a later date that he was a murderer wanted in 3 different states?) yet we somehow think that an overburdened background investigator is somehow going to find out every where we have applied.
My current departments policy is to not give out any of this info to anyone! the only way they will reveal it is if a Judge court orders them to, I have seen Federal Investigators doing backgrounds come in and ask for it only to be denied.


Most Departments seem to keep applicants on file for at least a year( as it seems that most of them have that "apply in a year policy if you don't make it through  the process the first time" ) but it ultimately comes down to the departments policies.
As far as the Fingerprint checks being kept on file, I really don't know for how long they are kept or if they even are.   Most departments also do an NCIC check and I really can't tell you if those are kept on file or not.

I truly do believe in being 100% honest with wahtever department a person applies with ( the reason most of us want to be in Law Enforcement is because we have a higher degree of Integrity and hold ourselves up to higher standards than most others in society) and I realize most of us probably feel like crap when we lie or are less than honest.  The only thing that really bothers me is that a department disqualify a perfectly qualified candidate based on the results of a Polygraph that took part of another departments background without even giving him a fair chance at the hiring process with them first.  I really wouldn't be able to blame a candidate for ommiting his disheartening experience with the other department if he knew his revealing it would automatically disqualify him from being able to get the job he has always wanted to do.

"Cop,"

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