Background check

[Lily]

Is it possible to order ones BI just like we order our credit report?

[MrJim911]

BI meaning background investigation? If so I woud say they are really not similar. In a background investigation the detective assigned to you is going to be out and about checking to see if you live where you say you live. He might talk with your neighbors to see what living next to you is like. He'll probably confirm your current place of employment or past place of employment. He'll run a criminal history on you check for past crimes committed, etc... Someone will check to see if your drivers license is valid. A background is more involved and more work then a credit report.

[ladymoonlite]

IF you mean Criminal History - yes, you can get that from your state Bureau of Investigation (or whatever your state equivalent is). There is usually a charge for it. Contact your local PD and they can usually tell you how to go about it.

[KYEMT325]

It all depends what you're looking for. You can get a criminal history from your chief state law enforcement agency (in Ky it's the Kentucky State Police), they charge 35 bucks here for it. But that is FAR FROM being a background investigation. A good background investigation involves following all past employers for employee habits, checking neighbors, references, credit reports, etc before proceeding to a polygraph.


Now, for a police officer candidate, things can be even worse. Used to be (not anymore I hope), the larger police agencies in this area were known to pick your locks while you weren't home and go through your stuff to find out all they could about you. Talk about violating the law. But, people overlooked it because they thought it was just one of those things, that if you were applying for a police position that it was expected. Those days are long gone however.

I will tell you however, that we have found that a psychological test is a VERY good tool to use in your hiring process for dispatchers. We made the fatal mistake of hiring someone from out of state that we didn't really know anything about (her past employers were closed-lipped about everything, didn't really check her references too well, etc). If we had given her a psych eval, we'd have known before we hired her that she was insane and that she didn't need to be anywhere near police work. But, we learned the hard way, and after forcing her to resign 5 months later, we now give a psych eval to all dispatcher candidates. :D