I’m applying for a major law enforcement agency. I wrote answers for an applicant questionnaire, which were untrue. I have done many drugs in the past, mushrooms, LSD, Ecstasy, MDMA, Hash and a TON of weed, even coke once or twice.
That said, I am all clean and have been for a while. Haven’t touched anything illegal and I barely drink at all. I’m over 6 feet, 245 pounds of muscle, work out run and run almost every day. I have extensive experience with addictions and mental health and consider it a personal skill of being able to de-escalate potential violence and conflict, without even going there. I think I’d make a great cop, and first-responder.
This agency values experience, but is looking for a specific personality profile.
However I lied on my questionaire. I don’t like lying but I was told by my co-workers I would never move on if I told the truth about my drug history. Maybe they were right. I have a phone interview in a few days, and then it goes to polygraph.
Should I come clean over the phone interview, or hold out these lies I told? I only told them I only smoked weed ever.
Thanks very much for reading and I appreciate any advice.
There’s no factual answer to this, especially because different agencies will surely have different practices, and there’s no way to know what the adjudicators at some unnamed agency may think.
However, it’s pretty clear that the deck is now seriously stacked against you. You’ve lied and it looks like you’re only considering coming clean because you may soon be caught red-handed due to the polygraph. Personally, I understand the line of thinking that led you to the lie (not wanting to be rejected outright), but in the bigger picture, you have raised a much, much more serious problem that goes straight to the heart of public trust in someone who may have considerable authority. In the end, being a former drug abuser seems like small potatoes compared to being a current prevaricator. If you’re willing to deceive to get the job, why should people have confidence that you won’t seriously deceive someone while actually on the job?
In my opinion, your only hope is to set this straight immediately and be totally forthcoming about what you did (both the drugs and the lie), why you did it at the time, and why you will never do this again. And when I say “never do this again,” that’s the sort of explanation that isn’t simply, “I’ve learned my lesson and I feel really bad.” It is more like, “I had a terrible time in high school because my parents were awful to me and I turned to drugs. I’ve since had therapy and come to grips with those issues, and I’ve been clean for 12 years. And the reason I lied on the application is that I didn’t want it to be rejected out of hand: I felt I needed to explain what happened to a person, rather than having me judged by ticking a box on a form.”
Except however you respond ought to be the truth, of course.
My experience in LE is dated back some 20+ years, but then and probably now, lie once and you are done. The agency you are dealing with may have entirely different policies.
I have some experience with the Federal security clearance world, and lying is about the #1 worst thing you can do. If you smoked weed a few times in college, they usually don’t care that much as long as you are clean now. Hell, pretty nearly everyone did it at least once or twice. Lying about smoking weed pretty much kills your chances. Even an apparently fairly innocuous lie can be detrimental - e.g. they usually ask about foreign travel. If you wen’t to Canada last year, hey, no big deal, lots of people do. If you lie and then they find your Montreal pics on Flickr, bye bye.
I had all my coworkers telling me I’d never get in if I told the truth. I suppose because they have such clean backgrounds, and I’ve tried everything. I’m not sure what I was thinking, I shouldn’t have listened. I was pretty stoked I did so well in the aptitude test.
I didn’t touch any drugs until university and during. And I used them for experience, I wouldn’t give up any experience for anything.
Yeah you’re right, it’s time to come clean. I hate lying. They can take it or leave it.
Probably, but it depends on the agency. It’s better than having them find out about it and confront you. You might want to speak to a lawyer first to make sure that you didn’t commit a crime in lying.
These security clearances are kinda like a credit rating on the individual, it’s all about risk. So, you have made yourself an extremely risky applicant and they probably don’t want that for someone who is going for a position that requires a poly. Poly’s usually go back at least ten years if not more. Some agencies require no drug use within one year (CIA?) and some are three (FBI/DEA?). Depends on what they do.
One should always come clean on drug use. I knew a lot of people when I was in the military who were habitual coke users who had poly’s and I now know people in the civilian world who have drug use in the past who have poly’s. However, no one lied about it and it wasn’t within whatever time frame that would have excluded you from the position. Heck, I knew one guy who would prostitute himself for drugs and he was a meth addict, etc. Had a very high clearance in the Navy handling message traffic, he talked about it all the time.
So, can you recover? Doubtful. There is a cost associated with placing someone in an agency and you are not worth it. Maybe you have some awesome-crazy skillset and the guy who wants you is willing to shoulder the risk you have created, but, highly unlikely after “those whose names I can not mention” have caused such a ruckus.
I know someone who smoked weed while in one position of what most people would call public trust, and roughly a year later applied for another more senior position for which he required a security clearance. He sought my advice on how to present his significant lapse in judgment. I told him what I told you: own up to it, explain why you did it, and why you will never do it again, and take your chances. He ended up getting the clearance when I didn’t think he would.
Your odds, IMHO, are considerably worse than his, since he was up front about his modest drug use. All you can do from here on out is be honest and cross your fingers. If you persist in your lie, as poor as polygraphs are, the odds are overwhelming that you’re going to fail. If you come clean there may be chance, but it’s like drawing to an inside straight at this point.
You are probably screwed even if you had disclosed the use initially. Pot is usually not disqualifying if it’s been a few years and you were just “experimenting.” Depending on the department, hallucinogens and coke are automatically disqualifying regardless of when or how much.
You said it’s a major law enforcement agency, which implies that they probably can be a little more selective when it comes to applicants.
I would advise you to withdraw your application immediately before it goes any further. A poly will undoubtedly uncover the lie, and admitting you lied now isn’t likely to help you much. Consider it a lesson learned and perhaps rethink your career options. Private security companies and/or the military may be more willing to accept your previous transgressions, assuming you are up front about them on the application.
As a side note by daughter always wanted to be in law enforcement and was a clean person her entire life. She never even smoked pot in college. When she told the interviewers that she had never used any drug they didn’t believe her and assumed he was lying. She took 2 polys and passed them both because she wasn’t lying about it, and was eventually hired by a local police department.
What’re you implying bud? I don’t exactly know what goes through most law enforcement agencies minds most of the time with regards to what they’re looking for, besides loyalty for obvious reasons, but I got extensive experience working with all types of disadvantaged people, the types of people police run across every day, which is why I consider it to be an honour to be one. Domestic violence, addictions, federal corrections(IE, murders pedophiles and rapists), schizo’s waving machetes at me, government housing, dead bodies, robberies at my local corner store. It’s nothing new to me. Aside from getting shot at, there is not a whole lot that can shock me at this stage. With regards to drug use, that’s just another thing to throw up there. I been out of my element, pretty far out and I’ve come back, have you?
I’m not gonna sweat this too hard. I don’t put all my eggs in one basket. But I was looking forward to really pushing myself and being a part of something I could really be proud of.
I’m not implying anything, or I didn’t mean to. Let me be clear: you’re probably fucked, but your best bet is to withdraw your application with this department and try for one that may not have as stringent requirements.
And I must say that your response to my post shows that you have excellent conflict resolution and de-escalation* skills.
Being worried about passing a polygraph is like being worried about passing a Magic 8 Ball quiz. So many outright liars have passed the test and so many truthful people have failed that I really wouldn’t worry about it. In fact, being not worried about it is really your best bet. You think Aldrich Ames or Gary Ridgway lost a lot of sleep over a polygraph?
Yeah, I just posted some questions and links to that effect.
A while back in another thread (can’t recall which) someone linked to an LEO forum. Apparently the drug use question gets asked ad nauseam by hopeful applicants in the “Ask a Cop” subforum. Might be helpful for the OP to look that forum up and read through the threads there?