David Brouillette, the ICE officer who allegedly killed Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero during a traffic stop in Maine last week, had a history of domestic violence and a number of serious mental health issues, his ex-wife told NPR.The killing, along with a fatal ICE shooting in Texas the week before, comes on the heels of a rapid hiring spree at the federal agency: ICE says it has hired more than 12,000 officers in less than a year.That has prompted some law enforcement experts to worry that ICE is cutting corners in its hiring – a lesson police have learned the hard way over the years."This is a person that never should have been hired," Gil Kerlikowske, a former commissioner of U.S.
Customs and Border Protection, says of Brouillette.A typical vetting process should have caught red flags in the ICE officer's past, Kerlikowske told NPR.When it comes to assessing an officer's mental well-being, hiring practices at police agencies around the country vary widely.
But Kenneth Corey, who spent more than three decades at the New York City Police Department, says more intensive vetting, such as mandatory psychological evaluations, is becoming more common.Corey oversaw the NYPD's medical division, including the psychologists who evaluated recruits.He says candidates there go through medical and psychological exams, and what is known as a background character investigation."If the investigation is done properly, you're contacting former employers, you are getting records and not just academic records, but specifically disciplinary records from schools," says Corey, who now leads the Policing Leadership Academy at the University of Chicago Crime Lab."You're contacting the police departments in any jurisdiction where your candidate has ever lived.
Do they have any reports on file with your name on it? That would include domestic incident reports.It would also include cases where you were moved to a hospital for mental health issues," he says.The process isn't perfect.
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