The Dangers of Fast Tracking or By-Passing Background Vetting

We have all heard how the slow and cumbersome the background investigation process is for security clearance applicants. However, the process is designed to weed out undesirables who may have a less than stellar personal history. That is why the on-boarding steps for getting badged and being given access to sensitive or classified information is methodical in nature. It has actually improved quite a bit over the last few years. There lies a danger in rushing the process, as the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) found out during their hiring spree last year.

Over 12,000 new employees were brought on by ICE in a blitzkrieg of hiring, prodded on by the need to ramp up ICE operations across the U.S. During the rush to get applicants on-board and people out on the street, initial screening and vetting processes were fast tracked or bypassed altogether. Tentative job offers were given and they started working prior to background investigations being completed. The result? There were many instances of discovering new employees had issues that precluded them from being eligible for a security clearance.

Examples of the kinds of issues discovered were pending criminal charges, recent bankruptcies and delinquent debts, employment terminations for misconduct, dishonesty, and wrongful use of authority or excessive force.  It is understandable when you have so many new hires to screen that some of these would slip through, but there appears to be a larger than normal population of applicants that made it through and never should have. This highlights the importance of the vetting process so there are no surprises afterwards and protects the reputation, trust and fidelity of the U.S. Government.