From City News Service
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has established a new policy that will require the department's background investigators to report job applicants who admit to potential criminal conduct during the hiring process, it was reported Saturday.
Assistant Sheriff Todd Rogers told the Los Angeles Times the new policy was still being formulated, and expects it will require sheriff's employment screeners to refer any misdeeds that appear to be "prosecutable" to criminal investigators.
The Times reported that if such information is found about Los Angeles County employees, they will be referred to the sheriff's internal criminal investigators. If not, Rogers told the newspaper, they will be referred to whichever law enforcement agency has jurisdiction where the crime occurred.
"It was more left up to individuals' judgment," Rogers said. "We're taking it out of individual judgement and making it a policy."
The action comes in response to inquiries from The Times about a mass hiring the sheriff's department conducted in 2010 after taking over the jurisdiction of the Office of Public Safety, the county's smaller police force.
According to internal records reviewed by the newspaper, many of the county officers who applied for jobs with the department admitted during the screening process that they had committed misconduct for which they were never caught.
