Prescreening Military Officer Candidates for High Level Security Clearances
Abstract
This report documents the practices that the Services use to determine an officer's eligibility for a high level clearance before a formal request for a background investigation is submitted to the Defense Investigative Service. Moral character standards appear to be successful at screening out some applicants from commissioning programs who would have trouble obtaining high level clearances. A variety of methods including applications, interviews, character references, and police record checks are used in making moral character determinations. Once accepted into a commissioning program, additional methods are used to uncover discreditable acts committed by students. It is argued that the effectiveness of these methods for predicting clearance eligibility has not been established. Data on officer attrition indicates that substantial numbers of officers make it through screening procedures only to be separated as a result of serious performance and conduct problems. Keywords: Security clearance; Personnel security; Moral character determination; Officer accession; Officer screening; Officer attrition.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1989
- Accession Number
- ADA212737
Entities
People
- Douglas B. Rosenthal