My nightmare has come true

[Romano]

Well, my nightmare has come true...I have been deferred for life from CPS. I have contacted the recruiting SGT and she basically told me that a background investigation has brought up info that makes me ineligible. I asked her if I had been deceitful or had done anything like that to bring about this deferral. She replied no and apparently there is not a problem with my honesty or integrity at all. However, she would not release the information or reason for my deferral to me. It sounds as though a third party whom I may know might be an unsavoury character and this has come to bite me. Of course this is all speculation on my part as I have no idea what the actual reason is. This has left me totally shocked, and utterly devasted. I have been working towards getting hired by CPS for the past 6 years and now it is very close to being over. I have never been so disappointed in my life. I will be appealing my deferral and hopefully this has all been some mistake. I am trying to remain positive and keep my emotions from getting the better of me. I will let you all know how the appeal goes. If it is negative I will cosider my options to apply elsewhere at that point. Thanks for all the good advice I have gotten from this site over the past few years, it has been helpful. Good luck to those of you still trying to get on somewhere. Wish me luck!

[Phil]

Romano, I don't know what to say. Man, that is absolutely asinine that they can't tell you anything, especially when you have honestly have no idea what is going on. My deepest sympathies in regards to this whole matter; I really do hope you can figure something out with the appeals process. I can't imagine the frustration.. just keep in mind that it could possibly be something local and if you tried another service, you might have a shot. I'm just throwing out ideas that might help. Irregardless, keep your chin up and don't let this throw you for too much of a curve.

[sam00]

Romano, I am not going to say I am sorry for you. That will be like having sympathy with you. Id rather encourage you to go ahead with the appeal and try with all other agencies. You deserve it. You have been trying so hard for so long. Dont Give UP!

By the way how long did they take from the time of your polygraph to the time of the decision.

Regards,

Sam

[guest again]

Yes it is me again. I peruse this board from time to time. Romano I am sorry. The exact same thing happen to me. While I was on this board ranting and raving against the poly I was doing so in hopes of preventing someone from falling victim to the poly like myself.

You have to trust me when I say you WERE DEFERRED DUE TO THE POLY. Check your timeline. As soon as you finished the poly your app was finished. The recruiting department are not going to tell you the real reason for your deferral without a fight. Don't be so neive as to beleive what they tell you.

I also hate to say but your policing career is finished. The reason for your deferral at Calgary will be revealed to all future forces you apply to. They will take Calgarys information and defer you too. They are not going to waste time and dollars putting you through their process when Calgary has already done it. In police lines Calgary is a very reputable force. No other force is going to look at your app and say "Calgary must have screwed up, lets give this guy a shot".

I am sure the CPS don't take lifetime deferrals lightly. They are dieing for applicants. You can get a lifetime deferral for lieing, misprepresenting yourself on your questionairre, confessing something serious during the poly or being caught in a lie (no not during the poly).

Now if you did not lie or confess something then by the process of eliminaiton you must have failed during the poly. As I have been saying for years now THE POLY IS FLAWED. It does not detect lies. Study it. My guess is that the polygrapher "detected" deception and based on his gut instinct labelled you as deceptive or not the best candidate. If you could see your poly report, the written report/notes from the polygrapher not the graph, you will see in block letters accross the top DO NOT HIRE. No silly chart showing my "polygraph results" was ever produced. My lifelong dream of being a cops was shattered forever because of one persons word saying he/she did not feel I should be hired.

Take this or leave it but if you really want to persue a career in policing I suggest you get a lawyer. A good lawyer and obtain your file. Then sit down with recruting and your lawyer and fight the poly results. If you don't get the poly results washed you are finished. If you are going to dismiss my advice then I hope you have an alternate degree or something to fall back on because I can gaurantee you are not getting hired anywhere else after a lifetime deferral with CPS. Sorry to be blunt. I hope you fight now rather than later. The CPS destroy your poly videotape after 2 years so if you want to use that to prove you did not say what the polygrapher says you did I suggest you get going now.

Good luck.

[mark]

You know,if you stop and think about,almost anyone out there could cause you a problem. I had words a few years ago with this women in my apartment buliding because she was always removing my clothes from the dryer before they were done and i finally caught her one night and told her in a firm but polite manner to cease doing it and she has been on a rampage against me ever since. she has managed to turn half the building aganist me. I go in and out and i mind my own business,but she has this church lady way about her and everybody listens to her. They talk to neighbors and landlords past and present so how could i be sure how much misery she could bring?

[Wade]

Sorry to hear about your deferral. If it is the polygraph examanation that caused your lifetime, deferal aren't they only valid for one year in any agency in Canada?

[Romano]

Regardless of what anyone here thinks I was not deferred because of the poly. I was told directly by the recruiting Sgt that they did not have any reason to question my honesty or integrity. It more than likely was due to a third party that I know being connected to criminals or saying something bad against me. I fully believe that had I been deferred because they felt I had been deceitful they would have said this to me. There is no reason for them not to tell me this had it been the case. Therefore anyone with any remote semblance of logic could conclude that a deferral was caused by something else. I appreciate the support from many of you, but the negative doomsday outlook by my old friend "guest" is not appreciated or necessary. Please if you have nothing positive to contribute please take your bitterness elsewhere. This is the last time I will aknowledge you. I will keep the rest of you posted about how the appeal goes.

[HB]

I was deferred for 2 years for reasons unknown - as I was not aware of the appeal process I left it at that. It was tough to go through 2 years of the process to be deferred at the selection. However, I didn't let it get to me - I want to be a Ploice Officer - it is my dream. I continued on which was hard to do but am now heading off to Regina to be a member of Canada's finest! I will always wonder what the CPS didn't/did see - but I figure it is Calgarys loss, Canada's gain. Good luck to you, and keep on it!

[journey2cps-redux]

I was also handed a 2 year by CPS...I applied to the Horsemen, and should be in training by end of summer or sooner. (fingers crossed)
Don't give up Romano! While I agree that CPS is one of the better muni forces, there are still LOTS of other good forces in Canada.

[Romano]

Thanks for the support, I have hear about applicants being deferred for life and months later getting a call back saying they can try again. I have also heard about applicants appealing their lifetime deferral and then getting on with CPS. Has anyone else heard stuff like this? Perhaps a small glimmer of hope. If Calgary does not lift the deferral I will definitely try elsewhere. CPS was by my first choice but I want to be a cop whether that's here or elsewhere I will accomplish this goal.

[Phil]

Romano, I have in fact heard of that very thing happening. I think part of the reason they are more liable to just hand out lifetime deferrals is because:

a) It costs man-hours and time to investigate disparaging words made by one person against another.

b) Costs time and money to investigate false claims made in regards to a person's reputation.

c) Costs time and money to thoroughly investigate anything that may look bad against an applicant, when there are many other applicants out there who don't have ANYTHING going against them, and it will cost less to simply move on to their file and keep the ball rolling.

As you can see, it's one recurring theme through all this. I can believe it, as police budgets are stretched, and they simply can't afford to invest too much into something that might not pan out. The old yarn "Where there is smoke, there's fire.." Heck, I've been told by someone in the volunteer unit that someone in my step-family has had some connections to bad people, and as such, can't take me on as a volunteer.. BUT, when applying for a job within CPS, I should have NO problem whatsoever, as the security investigation is much more thorough. Doesn't make much sense, does it?

Moral of the story: I think they do odd things at odd times, for sometimes odd reasons. Just keep confident, and if you can appeal it and prove they have no reason to be worried, I think you have reason to believe there is some hope. I think some deferrals are lifted because somebody retracted a statement, or an applicant has been looked at again.. there is a myriad of different reasons that they could do this. Don't give up hope, as you know it can happen. If not, move on and follow the dream; you have even more motivation if it doesn't work out with CPS.