In support of POST’s Strategic Plan Goal to “Enhance Law Enforcement’s Ability to Serve Their Communities” and to ensure that “law enforcement agencies are better able to select and train highly qualified law enforcement personnel” (Objective 4.A.1.), POST staff is proposing the creation of a mandatory training standard for background investigators.
Conducting fair and comprehensive background investigations that are in compliance with state laws and POST regulation is the cornerstone to verifying that candidates are suitable to serve as peace officers. As such, it is imperative that background investigations are thorough, and the resulting narrative report contains adequate information for the department to make hiring decisions based on complete, accurate, consistent and relevant information.
Concerns have been expressed over what at times is a lack of thoroughness, consistency and relevancy of information provided in background investigation reports, raising concerns about a department’s ability to make an effective hiring decision and the screening psychologist’s ability to conduct an effective evaluation. In addition to department’s utilizing the information to screen in the most qualified candidates, psychologists rely on these reports to screen out candidates. Evaluators must review relevant personal history “based on information collected during the background investigation” [Commission Regulation 1955(e)(3)], thus relevant and complete information is an integral part of the psychological evaluation.
With the enactment of recent laws, such as Assembly Bill 846 – bias assessment in peace officer screening – and, more recently, Senate Bill 2 – peace officer decertification – it is even more imperative that background investigations and the resulting reports are thorough, comprehensive, and contain all relevant information for departments to make informed decisions. Though many departments use third party contractors for these services, oftentimes personnel assigned to backgrounds have no or minimal prior knowledge or experience in conducting these investigations. Mandating background training would help to ensure that all individuals conducting background investigations have the knowledge and understanding they need to conduct thorough, efficient, and effective investigations. Further, from a risk management perspective, it would improve the reliability of background investigations and help to ensure that state laws and POST requirements are being met.
Survey
Recognizing that there is a need for training in this area, POST conducted a survey to gather information to help determine effective and reasonable options for background investigator training, while taking into consideration departmental needs and resources. A summary of relevant survey results can be found in Attachment A.
The survey was distributed to departments via direct email. Complete surveys were received from 96 respondents, across all ten POST regions. A little more than half of the respondents were agency heads/executive staff (n=49, 51.09%) with the majority of respondents from small agencies with fewer than 25 peace officers (n=37, 38.54%) on staff; second and third largest responses were from departments with 51-100 peace officers (n=21, 21.88%) and 26-50 peace officers (n=18, 18.75%), respectively.
Who conducts background investigations?
A majority of respondents (n=66, 68.75%) indicated that they primarily use third-party background investigators (contractors) to conduct investigations. The second most common was staff who are assigned to background investigations as their secondary/ancillary duty (n=27, 28.13%), followed by staff whose primary duties are backgrounds (n=20, 20.83%). Note that respondents could select more than one from the list, thus these numbers reflect that respondents may have identified, for example, both third-party investigators and internal staff as those who conduct background investigations for their department.
What type of training do departments currently require?
In response to whether a department currently requires training for their investigators, most (n=77, 80.21%) indicated they require one or more types of training. The majority 94.81% (n=73 out of 77) identified the 32-hour minimum POST-certified Background Investigator Course as what they require. The second most common training requirement (n=36, 46.75%) was the 16-hour minimum POST-certified Background Update Course; and 10 departments (12.99%) required training presented by the background associations (California Background Investigation Association or California Association of Law Enforcement Background Investigators). A nominal number (n=5, 6.49%) indicated they use third party investigators (n=3), training provided by previous staff (n=1) or update training every two years (n=1).
Why do departments not require training?
Of the 19 respondents who indicated that they do not require training, the majority (n=11, 57.89%) identified that they use third party background investigators. Respondents were able to select multiple reasons for why they do not require training and other reasons were concerns with staffing issues (n=6, 31.58%), availability of training (n=5, 26.32%), cost (n=2, 10.53%), and location (n=2, 10.53%).
If mandated, would departments be able to send their staff to training?
Based on survey results, a majority of respondents indicated that sending investigators to in-person training would be possible for their department. There were similar findings for the 32-40 hour and 16-24 hour in-person courses with 82 respondents (85.42%) identifying a neutral to very probable rating for being able to send staff to a 32-40 hour course and 85 respondents (88.54%) indicating a neutral to very probable rating for a 16-24 hour course. 40 respondents (41.67%) indicated that a 32-40 hour course requirement could be met within six months and 48 (50%) indicated within 12 months. Inversely, 58 respondents (60.42%) indicated they could meet a 16-24 hour course requirement within six months with 34 (35.42%) indicating they could do so within 12 months.
Online training yielded nearly the same results with 83 respondents (86.46%) specifying that the training would be feasible. The majority of respondents (n=61, 63.54%) indicated that online training could be completed within 3 months and 31 respondents (32.29%) indicated completion within 6-12 months.
Hybrid training (combination of in-person and online) was slightly less favored by respondents (n=79, 82.30%) and session-based training, which incorporates 4-8 hour sessions over a period of time, yielded the least favorable response (n=69, 71.88%) in terms of the feasibility of sending individuals to the training. Currently, there is no background investigator training developed for either of these types of formats, thus developing training and finding presenters willing and able to provide these formats may present challenges.
Although the 2021 survey results indicate the importance of investigators having knowledge and understanding in specific areas (See Attachment A, Items 12 and 13), the results of a March 2019 survey of background investigators (Attachment B), who previously attended a background investigation course, identified a lack of consistency in the presentation, content and overall effectiveness of the course, depending upon the presenter.
Background Investigation Training
Although state law, regulations, and guidance developed and offered by POST provide investigators with extensive and comprehensive requirements and relevant tools and resources to conduct thorough background investigations, there are no requirements to ensure that there is an understanding of the requirements nor direction for conducting background investigations or creating comprehensive background reports. Third party background investigators, however, must be a licensed private investigator (PI), working under a licensed PI (BPC § 7520 et seq.), or an attorney. Their activities are highly regulated through the Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act (ICRAA), Civil Code §1786 et seq.
To provide consistency across background investigations and to ensure that departments are receiving complete and relevant information to make informed decisions, consideration should be given to mandating training.
Although there is no currently developed online training for background investigators, POST could begin developing courses through the Learning Portal or similar online learning platforms. This could also include a self-study, book-based examination to assess an investigator’s knowledge on POST regulations, state laws, and relevant procedures, similar to what is currently required for screening psychologists prior to being able to evaluate peace officer candidates. These online options would be available at any time and could provide a bridge between no training and a more extensive, comprehensive multi-day course. POST could also consider developing 1-2 hour, interactive or video-based courses on relevant background investigation topics, as needs arise.
POST currently certifies a 32-hour, minimum, background investigation course. The course includes instruction on POST regulations, relevant laws, background investigation processes and procedures, and candidate interviewing techniques. It also incorporates practical scenarios into the curriculum. The recommended course curriculum was updated in 2019, however, there have been changes in law since that time, including AB 846 (2020) – bias screening of peace officer candidates – and SB 2 (2021) – peace officer decertification – which would warrant an update to the course. POST also certifies a 16-hour, minimum, background investigation update course that provides updates to POST regulations, state laws and other relevant background issues.
Currently, there is no training mandate for background investigators.
Proposed Recommendations:
Staff recommend that the Commission approve mandatory training for background investigators, effective July 1, 2023, prior to conducting background investigations.
By providing a substantial transition period, this will ensure agencies and background investigators have ample opportunity to plan for training needs.
In the interim, staff are working on preparing a no cost online training/assessment instrument described above, that must be taken prior to conducting background investigations to supplement the full course. The training/assessment will allow staff to explore reducing the hours of the currently existing 32-hour minimum course, including developing mandated curriculum and/or content to ensure consistency across presenters. This, in turn, should provide presenters with opportunities to schedule more frequent sessions and reduce overall costs.
This proposed recommendation will result in a cost, which would most likely be reimbursable to POST participating agencies. However, independent background investigators who are not peace officers in POST participating agencies will not be eligible for POST reimbursement and will therefore be required to pay out-of-pocket for their training expenses.
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