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Should Felons be allowed to be Firefighters?
I am wondering what you all thought about a few things.
1) Should Felons be allowed to be Firefighters?
2) Does your fire department hire felons?
3) If you are a firefighter and you are convicted of a felony, should you be fired?
The reason why I bring this up is because I got an email recently about Richmond (VA) Fire Department hiring.
Apparently, they have dropped the requirements for employment:
* Have no felony convictions for any offense within 60 months preceding the date of application;
I got the information here
I cannot speak for the department if this was an actual drop in requirement or if it has always been this way.
I thought that if you were a felon, you were always a felon. The only way to get a felony off your record is to have the Courts expunge it from your record.
What do you all think?
1) Should Felons be allowed to be Firefighters?
2) Does your fire department hire felons?
3) If you are a firefighter and you are convicted of a felony, should you be fired?
The reason why I bring this up is because I got an email recently about Richmond (VA) Fire Department hiring.
Apparently, they have dropped the requirements for employment:
* Have no felony convictions for any offense within 60 months preceding the date of application;
I got the information here
I cannot speak for the department if this was an actual drop in requirement or if it has always been this way.
I thought that if you were a felon, you were always a felon. The only way to get a felony off your record is to have the Courts expunge it from your record.
What do you all think?
Replies are closed for this discussion.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by eric nelson on
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Yes I have a felony from many many years ago and I gurantee you that I would probably be the most trustworthy person you have ever met! Sure most Felons are scum and repeat however, there should be some sort of reprieve for people like me who messed up many many years ago and have not made a mistake since! I did not even serve prison time for my felony. However, employers do not care of the circumstances and I think they should. I have worked in EMS for many years and have racked up many awards and was even Paramedic of the year for a county in the midwest. These people would be shocked if i told them i had a felony, but why should their opinion of me change? I'm still the same person that has allowed me to be awarded with the Paramedic of the year award and the good friend of all of my co-workers!!!!!! I gurantee you that if you guys met me and I never told you of my past you would never ever be able to figure it out.
I think if you have not committed a crime after say 15 years then your record should be sealed to employers. Why should I be judged on something that happened when I was 17 years old????? The only thing I can say to people is the fact that I don't tell many people because of the black mark that it will leave however, I know that I'm extremely trustworthy and a good cititzen! -
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Permalink Reply by Gregory Borg on
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I am sure you are what you say you are. You situation has worked out well for you and your employer. It does not change my mind. I would rather give a non felon a first chance. No felons as firefighters, you commit one and your should be gone. There are too many people that try hard to live a good life, why should they not be hired instead of the felon. Don't commit the felony and you won't have to worry about it. The felony says someone is not good ant making life decisions, and that person wants me to put my life in in their hands. I don't think so.
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Paul, well I would love to discuss my situation with you becaue your opinion of me is clearly wrong! Yes, people in this nation have been wrongly convicted and we are seeing more and more of this every year...... I know I offended some of you by stating I had to lie on my application, but you have no idea what its like. No I'm not seeking sympathy, I'm just stating the facts! Prior to my current job I had applied to over 600 employers and not just in the fire service, over 595 places turned me down because of the felony. I'm a very honest person with the exception of this felony. I want to reiterate that I'm not seeking any sympathy I just want to get actual firefighters opinions about my case specifically. I wish I could be honest but the number of interviews I went to and the applications I sent out was not exagerated! I can not do anything else to prove myself. As I previously stated I have a Master's Degree, Army Vet, Medic license, volunteer as a coach and volunteer within my community. I gurantee I would pass any lie detector test regarding my character! My credit score is sky high! My whole point I guess is, yes most felons are terrible people and most will always go back to crime, but if you go back and read my story, I really think someone should give me a chance! You guys have to agree 22 years and I'm still being judged for this. I even have tried to show the potential employers my lie detector results and the letter of support I recieved from the lead detective, but it just blows my mind when they see everything that I have accomplished in life and all of the reference letters I have and they still say no. I agree 999 out of 1,000 may be a bad choice, but you always have the one that has turned his life around, heck I really never turned my life around, I made a bad choice for 2 minutes of my life and this 2 minutes has created all of this! I have always been a great person.
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Go back and re read all of my posts from around November 17 and let me know what you think.
Thanks,
Eric -
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I can agree with your statement and I do respect your opinion however, I made a stupid decision at the age of 17. I should not be juged 20 years later on something that happened when I was a teenager still in high school! Just curious did you read my story from November 17?
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Gregory,
We are now hearing more and more public service employees committing crimes, especially police officers. All I'm stating is I think I have proven the kind of person I am all throughout my adult life and it just stuns me that I actually have recomendations and reference letters from the lead detective and the judge in this case and employers still don't care. I have passed lie detector tests about the events that transpired over 20 years ago. I still can not believe employers care more about what I did at the age of 17 compared to what I have done for the last 22 years! -
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Yes, I under stand. I am not making a judgement on you personally. The decision to hire or not hire, or to keep or not keep a felon needs to be made before the issue is at hand. The when it comes up the decision has already been made. If it is made ahead of time with no name or situations in mind then it will be made clearly without undue influence. There were people that were 17 that di not make a bad decision, they lived by the standards they were taught by their mentor/parent/leader/whom ever they looked up to. Should not those people that did not commit the felony be considered first before the felon? Sometimes things we do follow us our whole lives. People tell us that when we are teens, some listen some don't. I am just saying I would make the decision not to hire felons at all and chose from the huge pool of non-felons.
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Bravo!
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You are missing my point, let us say a department made the decision not to hire felons 10 years ago, policy set. Then someone with a felony and recomendation from peter, paul and the baby jesus comes along and wants to be a firefighter. The answer is no, the decision was made ten years ago and there are 2000 other non felons that want the job, the felon does not get the job, he made that dicision when he commited the felony.
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I understand what you are saying, I really do. Too put it bluntly I think it sucks to be judged for something that happened over 20 years ago when I was a kid in high school. However, I realize its not about me.
I would love to see someone support the possibility of hiring felons on a case by case basis instead of dening everyone the opportunity. I understand that most feons are scum and usually repeat and I get lumped into that group even though I'm a great citizen. Gregory I do understand policy is policy.
If you read my story from November 17 you would see I was really in the wrong place at the wrong time and thus the reason why I would love to be judged on what I have done over the past 22 years and not what I have done for literally 2 minutes when I was 17 years ago. I do understand though they can't change laws for one person. -
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It is not just that, policies can be changed. It is that there are so many non felons the felons just are not needed. It sucks, yes. But why should the guy who obeyed the law not get the job and the felon get it? He made the decision 22 yeas ago to obey the law, he made a good decision. Now 22 years later it is still effecting him. That is what you are asking for. It is not about you it is about the vast majority of people that made the right decision. They get credit for that. The felon losses, but he made the decision to be in that situation, just like the other guy did.
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Gregory,
One last point I would like to make and that is I'm already a Paramedic and I do go into people's homes at 3:00 in the morning and I'm just as trustworth as my partner next to me! God knows that I'm not sticking up for felons because I understand where everyone is coming from and I probably would not hire a felon either however, my case is so different from anyother case. As I have prevously stated I have won Paramedic of the year honors along with many others! I just hate it when I get lumped into the bottom of society categories when I'm probably the most realiable and trustworthy person in my organization. Oh well! Thanks for your opinion Gregory! -
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