FBI no longer treating applicants’ experience with sex workers as automatic bar against hiring

Bureau will still dismiss those engaged with sex workers within past 10 years, three or more times overall, or while in public safety capacity

The FBI is dropping a categorical hiring ban on applicants who have had sexual encounters with sex workers and will instead consider in a more holistic manner at least some candidates who have engaged in the practice in the past, according to people familiar with the matter.

The move away from an automatic disqualification falls along a continuum of evolving recruitment standards within federal law enforcement and at the buttoned-up bureau, which several years ago relaxed its approach to candidates’ past marijuana use and has drawn more recent concern among some current and former agents about a perceived loosening of recruitment requirements as it seeks to replenish its ranks.

The bureau still intends to dismiss applicants who are revealed during the vetting process to have engaged with sex workers within the last 10 years, three or more times overall, or while in a position of trust, such as in public safety capacity, according to guidance issued this past spring and described by a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss internal decision-making and spoke on condition of anonymity.

For others, it will allow for consideration of the context of the conduct rather than treat it as grounds for an automatic rejection during the FBI’s hiring process.

The practical impact is not immediately clear since many who have solicited or accepted sex work may still be either immediately disqualified or weeded out upon further scrutiny from FBI polygraphers and security officials.

The FBI said the change was meant to account for the fact that some otherwise suitable candidates, including service members, may have engaged in the practice in places where it is legal – and to accommodate applicants who may done so when they were much younger or have themselves been victims of sexual abuse.

“It is false to suggest criminal behavior like this is no longer disqualifying at the FBI. Any applicant who has engaged in criminal sexual acts like those referenced would of course not be eligible for employment, and it is ridiculous to suggest otherwise,” the FBI said in a statement that described the background check process as “wide-ranging and extensive”.

“The FBI has and always will maintain some of the highest suitability standards for its applicants and employees in the US government,” the statement added.

Even so, the shift is being made at a time when current and former officials worry that the FBI, and the federal justice department more generally, have eased recruitment requirements while facing a mass personnel exodus brought on by retirements, voluntary resignations and firings.