Can Your AI Take the Stand?

By John Pallas, CEO, ProFirst Training and Consulting

Warning-AI Background Investigations

There's a company right now telling police departments their AI can complete a background investigation. Before your agency signs on, it's worth asking exactly what that AI is going to miss.

Why This Pitch Is Landing

Agencies are short-staffed. Everyone's hiring. And some applicant-tracking companies — the same ones that used to just help post job openings and collect applications — saw an opening. Now they're marketing "AI-powered background investigations" to chiefs who just want qualified bodies in the academy. The core product didn't fundamentally change. The marketing did.

That distinction matters. There's a real difference between a company that has always done investigative field work and one that's expanding its software suite into a discipline it doesn't have the experience to practice.

What AI Actually Can't Do

A background investigation isn't a data-processing task — it's a skilled discipline built on training, ethics, and judgment. Here's what gets lost when it's automated:

• It can't sit across from a neighbor and read the hesitation before they say "he seemed fine."

• It can't catch the inconsistency between what an applicant said in the interview and what their ex-supervisor just said.

• It can't follow a hunch down a hallway to find the one person who actually knows the truth.

• It can't testify in a civil suit and explain the judgment calls it made — because it didn't make any. It ran a script.

The Real Stakes 

When a background investigation gets it wrong, that's not a data error — it's a badge and a gun. It's the officer involved in the next use-of-force lawsuit, with the agency explaining to a jury why an algorithm signed off on his fitness to serve. A completed report isn't the same as a comprehensive one. What gets missed doesn't disappear; it surfaces later, in a lawsuit or a headline.

The Honest Middle Ground

This isn't an anti-technology argument. Software has a real place in this work — organizing files, tracking timelines, flagging records for a human to review, speeding up records requests. The line is simple: technology should support the investigator, not replace their judgment.

Ask the Question That Matters

If your agency is being sold a shortcut on background investigations, ask the vendor one question: can your AI take the stand? Can it sit for a deposition and explain, under oath, why it flagged one applicant and cleared another? That accountability is the whole job. It isn't something a script can carry.

The Bottom Line

AI can help organize a file. It cannot replace a trained investigator's judgment, and it can't be held accountable for the decisions it makes. Before your agency trades thoroughness for speed, make sure you know exactly what you're trading away.

ProFirst Training and ConConsulting Servicessulting provides nationwide background investigations, VSA examinations, public safety consulting, and background investigator training. Contact us to talk about what real, defensible vetting looks like for your agency.