Screening for Insider Threats in U.S. Law Enforcement: A Survey of Agency Policies and Practices

• In Event: Current Issues in Policing and Advances in Policing Research

Abstract

The study aims to better understand current policies and procedures used to screen for and identify insider threats in the law enforcement hiring process and among active officers. Specifically, we are interested in a) how law enforcement agencies currently conduct background screenings to identify potential insider threats during and after the hiring process, b) what information law enforcement agencies around the country ask as part of their hiring and screening processes, and c) what policies and procedures currently exist to mitigate risks from insider threats across U.S law enforcement departments. With a stratified random sample of 4,000 local police and sheriff’s departments, we use a survey design to ask about agency hiring and screening policies and procedures. Surveys will be fielded in April 2022 and findings will be presented at the conference. Findings will shed light on the law enforcement hiring process, which is an understudied aspect of policing though also one that potentially opens agencies up to insider threats.

Authors

• Erin M. Kearns, University of Nebraska at Omaha

• Sadaf Hashimi, University of Nebraska at Omaha

• Jessica Huff, University of Nebraska at Omaha

• Justin Nix, University of Nebraska at Omaha