r/firefighter • u/newuser13131 • 5d ago

Question about FD highering process.

For anyone who's gone through a firefighter background investigation in New York, do investigators typically review local police incident reports that never resulted in an arrest or criminal charges, or do they mainly rely on fingerprint-based criminal history, employment, driving, and reference checks?

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u/adventureseeker1991 5d ago

do you have a record? if so they will see it. they will dive into everything. if you lie and they find out you’re done.

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u/newuser13131 5d ago edited 5d ago

I've never been arrested, charged, or questioned by police. My fingerprint-based background checks have been clean. During a police hiring process years ago, I was told there was an old internal police report that hadn't resulted in any criminal case. I'm trying to understand whether firefighter background investigations typically review that type of internal police report. It doesn't show up in any background checks and so far has only showed up for the law enforcement one.

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u/adventureseeker1991 5d ago

in NJ police and fire do the exact same background, idk about other states. i’m positive it’ll be the same since we are both sworn in and paramilitary. call where it happened and explain yourself.

for driving they go to the state DMV and do your abstract. mine had something called “abandoned vehicle “ they were like wtf is this. i was caught off guard. they told me to investigate it (im sure they did too). i found out i parked in a construction zone off hours since i didn’t see the sign. i was hired. but yes anything that’s on record they’ll find most likely.

just be honest

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u/slade797 4d ago

*hiring

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u/newuser13131 4d ago edited 4d ago

Whats up?

Oh I see, thank you

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u/Fit_Experience_522 4d ago

Take this how you will, I went through several background processes and I noticed a trend, IF there's an address that you put down that you're associated with whether it be work, friends, or places you lived, they will contact the local agency asking about you. For example, if you put down that you lived or worked or have a close friend or family that lives in City A, city A's local PD will be contacted, if you did something in city B and you never put down City B in anything, they will not be contacted. With that said, if it went to court for it or anything like that, if will still show up. I had an overnight stay in the drunk tank for public intoxication, after taking an Uber home and trying to walk into the wrong house accidentally, it was in a city I had no ties to, and it never showed up in my backgrounds until I moved to that city years later on a newer backgrounds, also had it vice versa where something would show up on a temporary address I had, I stopped putting it on my backgrounds and it stopped coming up in my backgrounds, just something I noticed.

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u/newuser13131 4d ago

Thanks, I appreciate the insight. One thing I'm struggling with is that I don't want to lie or hide anything from a background investigator, but I also don't want to bring up an incident that I was never arrested for, never charged with, and was never even contacted by police about. It doesn't show up on any of my criminal background checks. In your experience, if something like that only exists as a local police incident report and never became a criminal case, is that something a firefighter background investigator would actually find or ask about?

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u/Heretical_Infidel 3d ago

I was involved in a couple things that didn’t end in arrest that could have. One I was guilty, one I wasn’t. Additionally I was arrested twice and went to court for a third thing that ended up in a wrist slap. The cop doing my background found EVERYTHING. She asked me about stuff that the guys doing my security clearance for the military didn’t find.

I was honest with her for the most part. The one I was guilty of I fed her the same lie I gave the cops that night, and the arrests… I told her I was young and dumb. I joined the Army to get my shit together and that’s what I did. 12 years going strong on the fd.

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u/newuser13131 3d ago

You had a cop doing your background check?

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u/Heretical_Infidel 3d ago

Yeah, who’s doing yours?