How Police Officer Background Investigations Miss These 5 Red Flags

Discover how modern tools help agencies catch these common hiring red flags early in police background investigations.

February 11, 2025

Article highlights

The law enforcement hiring process is time-consuming and rigorous – for good reason. Officers face high-stress situations that are demanding on every level. As such, these jobs require a combination of physical fitness, mental toughness, and emotional health.

Police officer background investigations are the longest and most complex part of the hiring process. It involves documentation for every aspect of a candidate’s life, including social media activity, medical history, personal history statements, and more. This information must be stored, reviewed, and annotated. Every step must be tracked and progress shared.

Unfortunately, with so much information being handled by a cross-functional team, it’s challenging to catch every red flag. Especially if you rely on manual processes and disconnected tools. Serving and protecting your community is too important of a calling to trust to unfit candidates.

Why Red Flags Are Missed in Traditional Processes

Red flags are red for a reason. How difficult can they be to spot? Very difficult, if you don’t have an advanced system to capture and review every aspect of a candidate’s life. Proper vetting simply requires too much documentation, tracking, and collaboration to rely on manual, paper-based processes.

What makes the law enforcement hiring process so complex? It may vary depending on the agency and role, but generally requires some combination of the following:

  • Education and experience screening
  • Written and physical exams
  • Personal history statements (PHS)
  • Records checks
  • Drug screening
  • Background investigation
  • Psychological evaluations
  • Voice stress tests
  • Polygraph

As a leader in law enforcement or HR, you’re familiar with pre-employment investigations. It’s a long and thorough process. Each of the elements listed above requires tracking and documentation. 

Herein lies the challenge. Most agencies don’t have the resources or systems to complete the officer hiring process accurately and efficiently. In addition to the bulleted list above, the recruitment process includes job postings, minimum qualification screening, applicant tracking, interviews, candidate communication, and more. 

These tasks require a cross-functional team of HR managers, recruiters, hiring managers, and background investigators. Each role has different responsibilities and uses different tools and methods to complete them. The problem is, these tools and methods don’t connect. Imagine the following situation: 

Your recruiter and HR personnel use an applicant tracking system to screen candidates, store candidate information, and track applicant progress. Your background investigators use separate spreadsheets or databases to conduct their investigation. Meanwhile, the chief or sheriff stores his interview notes in a Microsoft Word document. 

In this all-too-common scenario, you have three different roles using three disparate tools, with some manual processes thrown in for good measure. What does it add up to? An inefficient process that is prone to human error:

  • What if paperwork is misplaced or damaged? 
  • What if a spreadsheet is accidentally moved or deleted? 
  • What if miscommunication leads to duplicate work or a skipped step? 
  • What if the process takes so long that qualified candidates churn? 

Without a centralized platform to manage the hiring process – from accepting applications to completing background investigations – these “what ifs” can easily become “what do we do now?!” Inefficient processes and tools can lead to mistakes and liability, like missing a red flag and hiring an officer with conduct issues. 

Let’s look at five examples of red flags and how to catch them before it’s too late.

5 Red Flags That Are Harder to Catch Without the Right Tools

1. Gaps in Employment History

Unexplained gaps in employment history can be a red flag for background investigators. They may indicate past terminations, disciplinary issues, or difficulty holding a steady job. Of course, not all gaps are problematic (i.e. pursuing education, personal health, family matters, etc.).

The trick is identifying periods of unemployment when applicants falsify their work history, or recognizing when certain jobs are omitted from a resume. If agencies rely solely on self-reported work history without cross-checking previous employers or databases, these gaps may go unnoticed.

2. Problematic Social Media Activity

Social media activity may reveal behaviors or beliefs that conflict with the ethical and professional standards of law enforcement. Posts containing things like violent rhetoric, discriminatory language, gang affiliation, or substance abuse may disqualify candidates from employment.

However, identifying red flags in social media can be difficult. Candidates may delete controversial posts, use private accounts, or operate under aliases. Investigators need tools and tactics to uncover this deceit. Digital screenings are a given, but you can go above and beyond by interviewing past neighbors and implementing background investigation software.

3. Criminal Background Discrepancies

Candidates who omit arrests, charges, or convictions from their applications may be misleading investigators. It indicates dishonesty and hidden legal issues, raising obvious questions about their qualifications.

Catching these red flags can be challenging, especially if records are sealed, expunged, or exist in jurisdictions with limited data-sharing agreements. Some offenses may not appear in standard background checks, requiring deeper searches through multiple databases and coordination with other agencies. Name changes, clerical errors, or mismatched records can also complicate verification.

4. Financial Instability or Credit History Concerns

Financial instability or poor credit history may raise red flags around an applicant’s maturity and decision-making. Officers often handle sensitive information, evidence, and sums of money, so total trust is a necessity. But financial struggles don’t equate to misconduct. Investigators must distinguish between unavoidable hardships and poor financial management.

Detecting these concerns can be difficult, however, as not all financial records are easily accessible. Some debts or financial disputes may not appear on standard credit reports, and applicants may not fully disclose their financial situation. Investigators must carefully review credit histories, court records, and financial disclosures to identify risks.

5. References That Contradict Application Information

When work history, job duties, or “reasons for leaving” don’t match a former employer’s report, it’s a bright red flag. But finding these discrepancies isn’t easy, especially if references provide vague or conflicting details. The reference may not remember the candidate’s exact dates of employment, or if there’s an undue sense of loyalty, they may provide misleading positive reviews.

To uncover inconsistencies, investigators have to cross-check multiple sources and send the PHS to references for verification. A single discrepancy may not be a deal-breaker, but multiple inconsistencies may indicate dishonesty or unreliability.

Without the right tools, it’s easy to miss these common red flags. Background investigation software helps you catch potential issues before a hiring decision is made – in a fraction of the time as manual processes.

How Vetted Prevents Red Flags From Slipping Through the Cracks

Background investigation software like Vetted saves you time and resources, while giving you confidence that you’re hiring the best applicants. No software solution can guarantee 100%, but if a candidate has red flags, Vetted will help you catch more of them.

Vetted lets you flag inconsistencies or potential issues throughout the investigation. By catching these early, you can focus your attention on better candidates. For most agencies, reviewing a candidate’s social media is tedious and time-consuming. It delays the investigation. Vetted’s integration with First Choice finds the candidate’s online presence (social media, blogs, article mentions, etc.) and automatically categorizes and flags any concerning content for review. That way, your investigators don’t have to spend hours manually reviewing every social media account themselves.

The First Choice integration also provides credit checks. Through Vetted, you can get these financial reports at a steep discount.

Investigators often spend hours corresponding with other agencies and references. Vetted provides the address, phone number, and fax number for the agencies closest to candidates. It also lets you send digital copies of the PHS to nearby agencies and references for verification. You can even track references as they verify personal history statements.

If you already use Insight, NEOGOV’s applicant tracking system, the integration with Vetted allows your agency to manage all your hiring processes from a single platform. Not only do Vetted’s features and integrations prevent red flags from slipping through the cracks, they help you save a ton of time.

Final Thoughts

Due to red flags in the background investigation process, some candidates need to be disqualified. Hiring trusted and verified candidates is one way to serve and protect your community. But unfit candidates can’t be removed if you’re unaware of potential issues. That’s where Vetted comes in.

Vetted by NEOGOV is an advanced background investigation software. It helps you investigate candidates more efficiently and accurately than other solutions (including manual processes). Schedule a no-obligation consultation today to learn how Vetted can save your agency time and mitigate liability while helping you hire the best applicants.

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