CBP officer

[TuffStuffCBP]

Where have you been running the 220 at? I don't have a track near me, so I got in my car and drove until it marked .1 mile on the odometer. I know this is not accurate, as 220 yards is .125 miles, but from where I measured I am averaging the same time.

Use google earth's measuring tool. It is pretty dern accurate.

[flyingguy]

Where have you been running the 220 at? I don't have a track near me, so I got in my car and drove until it marked .1 mile on the odometer. I know this is not accurate, as 220 yards is .125 miles, but from where I measured I am averaging the same time.

220 Yards = 201 meters = 1/8 of a mile. That's running half of a track (400 Meters) + 3 feet. High School Sprinters can SPRINT it in about 27-30 seconds, for a basis. But I don't recommend training at a sprint: 80% is safe.

[Bebo]

220 Yards = 201 meters = 1/8 of a mile. That's running half of a track (400 Meters) + 3 feet. High School Sprinters can SPRINT it in about 27-30 seconds, for a basis. But I don't recommend training at a sprint: 80% is safe.

I don't live in a good neighborhood, so I really can't go running on the street as much as I would like. I work all day, and then take evening college courses. By the time I get off from school, the only place I can train is at the gym. I did sprints on the treadmill at the gym today. I averaged about 40 sec for the 220. I am glad that they told me what I will be tested on, because i was definitely not training for the 220 yard dash. It will be good though. I'll let you guys know how it goes. By the way, I am an ARMY Reservist, so I have to be in shape.

[DCH]

I don't live in a good neighborhood, so I really can't go running on the street as much as I would like.

That would make me run FASTER!

By the way, I am an ARMY Reservist, so I have to be in shape.

Oh man, a Marine should be by any second now with your standard Marine reply..

[Bebo]

That would make me run FASTER!






Oh man, a Marine should be by any second now with your standard Marine reply..

Lol!!! I get it all the time! I work with an AD Staff Sgt. and a retired 1st Sgt.

[imlikeaninja]

I got a thin letter yesterday telling me that my BI is no longer current and I need to fill out and return the FCRA form. The odd thing is that CASS is still showing me in TSU.

[USMC0844]

Oh man, a Marine should be by any second now with your standard Marine reply..

You mean with something like this:

[ifoCBP]

You mean with something like this:

When I was in military I saw just as many overweight marines as I did overweight army personnel. I think if you asked the soldier what his/her MOS was the situation became a lot clearer. I have never seen an overweight marine or army soldier serving in the infantry.

[davidB.]

I got a thin letter yesterday telling me that my BI is no longer current and I need to fill out and return the FCRA form. The odd thing is that CASS is still showing me in TSU.

Same

but it was for my credit check

CASS never changed

[merlin436]

Since we were discussing money, corruption and the need for stringent background evaluations of CBPOs earlier this month...

March 11, 2010 | http://www.centerforinvestigativerep...rg/blogs?#4365

Many of the thousands of new border agents hired in recent years as part of a push to block drug traffickers and other safety threats from entering the country might actually pose security risks themselves, a Homeland Security official testified today.

Speaking at a Senate Homeland Security subcommittee hearing on corruption of federal law enforcement officers, James Tomsheck, the assistant commissioner for internal affairs at Customs and Border Protection, testified that drug-trafficking organizations have infiltrated the nation's largest federal law enforcement agency.

"There is a concerted effort on the part of transnational criminal organizations to infiltrate through hiring initiatives and to compromise our existing agents and officers," he said.

Despite efforts to combat corruption, which include lie-detector tests for applicants and background checks for new hires and veteran employees, Tomsheck said he worries that the problem may be too big for his agency and others to wipe out even when they work together harmoniously.

Since 2004, more than 100 CBP agents and officers have been arrested or indicted, officials said. Tomsheck said when he took over the internal affairs office in 2006 the vast majority of corrupted employees had worked with the agency for 10 years or more, but now an increasing number of younger agents and officers have become corrupted.

CBP has expanded rapidly in recent years, nearly doubling the number of Border Patrol agents to 20,000, which has pushed its ranks to about 58,000 employees.

Tomsheck, who appeared with top officials from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, said that his agency has a backlog of 10,000 regularly scheduled background investigations, which could almost double by the end of the year. Nearly 100 contractors, among them retired FBI, DEA and other federal agents who conduct the checks, were recently laid off because of budget woes.

Funding shortfalls have also limited polygraph examiners to administer lie-detector tests to 10 to 15 percent of applicants, Tomsheck said, although the goal is to test all potential hires. But 60 percent of those who take the test are deemed "unsuitable" to work as Border Patrol agents or customs inspectors, Tomsheck said.

When asked if the 60 percent failure rate could apply to the other 85-90 percent of possible hires who are not tested, Tomsheck said officials had reached that conclusion. They suspect that many of those hired during the hiring push would be found not suitable to work for CBP if subjected to the test, Tomsheck said.

Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., who called the hearing and is the chair of the subcommittee, said the percentage is "alarming."

"We're on very dangerous ground here with corruption inside federal law enforcement," Pryor said.

Kevin Perkins, the assistant director of the FBI's criminal investigative division, did not give a specific number on how pervasive the problem is, but offered the case of customs inspector Margarita Crispin as an example of how valuable a corrupt official is to traffickers.

Agents suspect that Crispin joined CBP in 2003 with the intent of working with drug smugglers. She was sentenced in 2008 to 20 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $5 million in bribes she was paid to allow thousands of pounds of marijuana to be smuggled through her inspection lane in El Paso.

Based on the amount of bribe money Perkins said he seems the problem of corruption is "significantly pervasive." The FBI has expanded the number of its anti-corruption units, which draw from other state and federal agencies, to attack corruption, he said.

But corruption in the Homeland Security Department isn't limited to Border Patrol agents and customs inspectors. Agents and officers of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which both runs immigration detention and is Homeland Security's investigative arm, and employees of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that issues green cards and other immigration benefits, have also been corrupted.

Tom Frost, the assistant inspector general for investigations at DHS, said his office has even greater concern about the risk of corruption within CIS.

"Immigration benefits are such a valuable commodity to drug-trafficking organizations or other persons that would do us harm," he said. "Immigration benefits are even more lasting and profound" because they allow drug traffickers to operate within the United States.

Pryor said that changes in the law might address the problem.

“These cartels in Mexico are very powerful,” he said. “We should not underestimate their ability to corrupt law enforcement authorities.”

[pendingville]

Add me to your tsu waiting list:

washington state - all others - pendingville 3/5/09

I just got off the horn with minneapolis due to my one year anniversary in tsu. I wanted to check to make sure everything is up to date, etc, etc. I asked the usual, has there been any movement in WA State - all others? To my surprise, for the first time in 1 year I actually heard a yes. Turns out they placed 3-4 for Seattle this month. @$@# yeah, up moves the list.

Not sure where we are at exactly but I do know that before they stopped giving us that info, I did get one lady to tell me that Jan. 31st was the tsu entry date for the guy first on the list. Sooo, I'm sincerely hoping that this last little hire push took care of the February guys. Even if it didn't, it's nice to finally see SOME movement after a year of stagnation...

[USMC0844]

Not sure where we are at exactly but I do know that before they stopped giving us that info, I did get one lady to tell me that Jan. 31st was the tsu entry date for the guy first on the list. Sooo, I'm sincerely hoping that this last little hire push took care of the February guys. Even if it didn't, it's nice to finally see SOME movement after a year of stagnation...

As has been mentioned previously, they are now prioritizing based on TO date and TSU date does not have any relevance. The people that got hired in Seattle could have TSU dates of 03/10/10, but TO dates 0f 6/08 and jumped to the front of the list. There may even be someone out there that will hit TSU next week and have a 2008 TO date and will jump to the front of the line. No sense in worrying about TSU dates anymore. The only thing it really means is that you currently have a place, in a very fluid line, somewhere.

[TuffStuffCBP]

Does anyone else have the feeling that CBP is going to polygraph us all just to purge 60% of us from the pool? The article brings up concerning numbers of corrupt officers and I'm sure that some politicians are clamoring for heightened backgrounds. The only ones who can be polygraphed without going through red-tape are applicants.

I don't oppose the use of polygraphs, but clearly 60% of all applicants are not corrupt sleeper narco-terrorists, so casting such a wide net and eliminating such a vast number of applicants as potential criminals might be an awful idea. Unless they are trying to purge the vast numbers of applicants that they can never reasonably be expected to offer jobs to.

[waitingny]

...........

[kc12]

Does anyone else have the feeling that CBP is going to polygraph us all just to purge 60% of us from the pool? The article brings up concerning numbers of corrupt officers and I'm sure that some politicians are clamoring for heightened backgrounds. The only ones who can be polygraphed without going through red-tape are applicants.

I don't oppose the use of polygraphs, but clearly 60% of all applicants are not corrupt sleeper narco-terrorists, so casting such a wide net and eliminating such a vast number of applicants as potential criminals might be an awful idea. Unless they are trying to purge the vast numbers of applicants that they can never reasonably be expected to offer jobs to.

Without going into too much detail, there is a lot of debate about the effectiveness of polys in the hiring process. Studies have shown that for specific investigations of crimes it can be an effective tool, but for general investigations into backgrounds it is less accurate. There is also the issue that is test is not admissible in court, so how accurate can the test really be. My personal experience shows that the test is very inaccurate.