I’m a cleared individual (Secret clearance) working as a federal employee (and in the union), and in March of 2020 I was riding with my friend in his rental car and he was pulled over by the police and he was ultimately charged with a DUI. Bad decision on my part to ride with him but also a really bad decision on his part to drive, obviously. I was detained at the scene for a period of time but was eventually given a ride home by the police, since my friend was driving a rental car and I had been drinking also. I was never charged with anything but my question is, is this a reportable incident on the SF-86 or required to be reported by me in some other way? My clearance was re-activated in 2015 when I was hired by the government (hired in February 2015 and investigation concluded in May 2015) so my next investigation should be in 2025. Any advice as to what I should do, if anything, would be much appreciated and thank you in advance.
Do you have an FSO you could ask?
No I don’t believe so, not that I know of.
Were you charged with an alcohol offense or any offense related to this event? If not, no worries. If your name shows up anywhere it is easily explainable.
I would say to not include it on your SF-86, but if you were ever interviewed by an investigator you would certainly want to bring it up. Let me explain my reasoning on this.
It wasn’t your use of alcohol that resulted in the law enforcement intervention. I think that’s the only question on the SF-86 (Section 24: Alcohol) which seems to come close to your issue. OTOH, were you to answer “yes” to this question on your SF-86, even including an explanation for your answer, you would seem to be making a false statement which is a federal felony (punishable up to 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine). It makes no difference if you had a well-intentioned motive for consciously making the false statement.
So, in your noble attempt to be totally candid about something which didn’t involve any criminal act by you, or arrest involving you, you are risking the possibility of making a felonious false statement on an SF-86. Bad idea.
Let it go. And get an Uber next time.
No, I was not charged with any alcohol offense or any offense related to this event. Just detained and then given a ride home.
No charge, no citation, no arrest, do not report.
How would an event like this even be found by an investigator if no fingerprints were taken nor charges filed?
I appreciate everyone’s feedback. It’s very helpful. I was unsure of what to do but now I can understand why not to report it. Thank you.
First FYI - all clearance levels are now updated every 5 years. There is a backlog but you may be updated sooner than later (not 2025 - depending on the backlog of course).
The only SF86 question that may apply to this position is:
In the last seven (7) years has your use of alcohol had a negative impact on your work performance, your professional or personal relationships, your finances, or resulted in intervention by law enforcement/public safety personnel?
You will have to decide if you think your event qualifies as a yes to the last part this question. Your case seems like a bit of a gray area on this as you were not driving and thus not breaking the law. But this question is not asking if you broke the law, its only asking if there was intervention by law enforcement or public safety personnel…
I’m doubtful information from his police interaction would even be discovered by DCSA/ investigators; as there would be no record of citations or fingerprints since he wasn’t booked or charged.
Even if the OP is named in a police report; it shouldn’t come up in automated record checks.
keep in mind is a source that is interviewed discloses this information during an interview - there will likely be an inquiry as to why it was not disclosed by the person under investigation. More than a few things come up this way.
In your experience: Do police incident reports that have not resulted in charges/arrests get regularly discovered?
That usually depends on the level of organization and cooperation of a specific police department.
In my experience, the police event has a way of making its way to the investigator during the investigation through many different sources, not solely an incident report from a police department.
Do police incident reports that have not resulted in charges, usually get discovered by investigators through federal database checks such as the N-Dex? Or are they mostly discovered through direct inquiry?
Again, thanks to everyone for your inputs. I’m still not sure as to how to handle this, given the newest inputs. Sounds like I should leave it off of the SF-86, but bring it up during the interview?
This is a good question for any dedicated record searcher that might be on this page as they may have the most experience directly with the databases.
The LE agency might have an incident report about the contact, in which the applicant’s name might turn up.