POLICE AGENCIES COP A NEW ATTITUDE ON HIRING

Take down the old sign: Drug users need not apply.

It's the late '90s, time for a new attitude in law
enforcement.

Fifteen years ago it was virtually impossible to become a police
officer if you had smoked marijuana or used hard drugs.

Not today.

Many of those now seeking jobs as city police, sheriff's deputies,
Highway Patrol officers or FBI agents have used drugs.

But it's no longer a reason for rejection -- as long as the applicant
is honest about it and was not a habitual drug user.

"Some find it very hard to swallow that we'd take people who used
drugs," said Mike McCrystle, a retired FBI special agent who now
teaches criminal investigation at California State University,
Sacramento. But "this is a new time, a new place. You have to come to
the party sooner or later."

"We're dealing with . . . a whole different generation than we were 15
or 20 years ago," said John F. Langenour, a former police officer who
now does background investigations for several Sacramento Valley
police agencies. "It's a generational values thing."

According to federal figures, about half of all Americans ages 18 to
34 have reported using drugs at some point in their lives.

Applicants who have used felony drugs -- such as cocaine or heroin --
within the last 10 years usually are rejected by most agencies,
Langenour said.

Despite the change in hiring guidelines, new officers today "are just
as good as they used to be," said Lt. Jim Cooper of the Sacramento
County Sheriff's Department. "Are they better? In some ways, perhaps.
They might have more street smarts."

What derails most candidates who have used drugs, Langenour said, "is
lying about it. Ninety percent of those who fail, it's because they
weren't honest in the application process."

Two of three candidates for most law enforcement jobs either fail the
written test or oral boards, law enforcement officials said. And of
those remaining, half flunk the background investigations.

"We look at everything, and I mean everything," including
relationships with former in-laws and ex-employers, said Sgt. Tony
Asano of the Sacramento Sheriff's Department.

In addition to questions about prior drug use, academic records and
credit histories are checked, Asano said. Candidates with felony
convictions are automatically disqualified.

Until a few years ago, the FBI refused to hire anyone who admitted to
using illegal drugs, other than experimental use of marijuana.

"It was difficult, because we had some talented applicants, very good
people, not qualify due to recreational use of drugs," said Thomas P.
Griffin Sr., a retired FBI special agent who helped screen prospective
hires when he worked in the Sacramento office.

"You definitely have to draw the line somewhere, but you can have a
no-tolerance policy and hurt yourself," Griffin said.

To keep up with the times, FBI Director Louis J. Freeh changed that
policy in 1994, announcing new hiring guidelines.

A booklet given to prospective agents now says: "The FBI does not
condone any prior unlawful drug use by applicants ... (but) realizes
... some otherwise qualified applicants may have used drugs at some
point in their past."

According to the FBI, prospective special agents may have used
marijuana a total of 15 times, but not during the past three years; or
used hard drugs up to five times, but not during the past 10 years.

"If you can pass that on the polygraph, fine. But if you've used 30,
40, 50 times, you're not going to pass the polygraph, so why go on,"
said Nancy Wedick, a special agent in the FBI field office in
Sacramento. "Besides, you've lied on your application, which shows
lack of candor."

At the Sacramento Police Department, however, any hard drug use --
even on an experimental basis -- after the age of 18 automatically
disqualifies an applicant, said Deputy Chief Albert Najera.

"We have one of the most restrictive policies of any agency," Najera
said.

Najera said his department's hard line has resulted in the loss of
some otherwise first-rate applicants -- "people we really wanted to
hire."

Chief Deputy John Benbow of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department
said, "It's not a quality issue, it's a recruitment issue." So many
young adults have experimented with narcotics, he said, police
administrators have been forced to soften their stance.

"It's become a necessity for most agencies," Benbow
said.

But Sacramento County Undersheriff Carol Daly said that applicants
with prior drug use get scrutinized "really closely."

"They better have everything else in order," she said. "They've got to
be really good."