SAR Work with a Felony

Apollo16

New member
Hi everyone. First timer here. Was wondering what options I might have for possible employment with organizations partaking in SAR. Currently I work as a Mobile Developer for a small startup. My hobbies include Sailing. Skiffs and monohulls. Bowhunt, as well as flyfishing. I currently have one Felony (UDAA) Unlawfully driving away of an Auto vehicle. I train crossfit as well as work with my personal tracking dogs. Would love to do something SAR related. Considering EMT training to get some medical bakcground but would be difficult with a felony. Any suggestions guys or am i just tough out of luck here? Trying to find some light in the dark, you know what I mean. Was training for applying to the navy special operations before i turned 21 and got the felony. MY own **** up I know.
 

trnorman

New member
It's going to be tough since most SAR organizations are affiliated with local law enforcement or government agencies and passing a background check is required.

Sent from my VS990 using Tapatalk
 

verdesardog

Explorer
In our county a felony conviction automatically dis qualifies your for SAR membership. You can get your rights restored but it takes lots of legal work.
 

Robert Bills

Explorer
It is going to be extremely difficult if not impossible to get any meaningful employment with a felony conviction. As noted above, since SAR is so closely affiliated with law enforcement, getting a SAR job with a felony conviction will likely be impossible.

Talk to your criminal defense attorney. Most states have statutes which allow a motion to reduce certain felony convictions to a misdemeanor after a specified number of years if there is no further criminal history (which includes arrests). In some circumstances, most notably when a defendant has plead guilty rather than take the case to trail, it may even be possible a certain number of years after successfully completing probation/parole to move to withdraw the guilty plea and change it to not guilty and then move for dismissal "in the interests of justice." Again, talk to your criminal defense attorney regarding the law as it applies to your particular situation.
 

Arclight

SAR guy
Hi everyone. First timer here. Was wondering what options I might have for possible employment with organizations partaking in SAR. Currently I work as a Mobile Developer for a small startup. My hobbies include Sailing. Skiffs and monohulls. Bowhunt, as well as flyfishing. I currently have one Felony (UDAA) Unlawfully driving away of an Auto vehicle. I train crossfit as well as work with my personal tracking dogs. Would love to do something SAR related. Considering EMT training to get some medical bakcground but would be difficult with a felony. Any suggestions guys or am i just tough out of luck here? Trying to find some light in the dark, you know what I mean. Was training for applying to the navy special operations before i turned 21 and got the felony. MY own **** up I know.

In our county, you could not be on a SAR team with a felony conviction. Like the other posters said, spend $200 for a consultation with a lawyer and go over your options. Don't bother applying until you have this squared away.
 

Apollo16

New member
20 something SAR dreamer.

Thanks guys for the advice. I know it is tough to find meaningful employment with a felony. After 5 years here in Michigan if you have one felony and no more than two misdemeanors you can file for expungment. Thats all well and awesome and im thankful for that opportunity. But... Its only been a year and a half since my conviction. I have no history of criminal activity before or since. No history of drugs, domestic violence etc. It was something stupid I did out of boredom, and I take full responsibility for it. And done my time for it. My question is this. Is my only option to wait 5 years and hope they will except the expungement request? What are my options in the meantime? Right now I am working so much that I don't have the time or the money to do as much of what id like to do. Flyfish, bowhunt, snowboard, train my own k9s. Granted these are my hobbies. Its that ive trained on my own for the past 5 years and geared my physical training towards law enforcement, SAR, Navy Aviation Rescue Swimmer during my free time. Swimming, cycling, running. And I feel the urge to be out there serving my country and training physically and mentally. And for it not be something that I have to try to fit into my standardized everyday the same life. I feel blocked in by my past mistake. If there are better forums or avenues where I should say **** like this please feel free to inform me. I know you all are probably accomplished SAR operators or otherwise inbued, so I apologize for perhaps coming off as thickheaded or not accepting my place in the world. But I refuse to accept that I have to wait till im in my 30s before I can do what id really like to do.
 

emtmark

Austere Medical Provider
Sack up, ride it out, do what you can to get ready for the judge. Volunteer, homeless outreach, public space cleaning, organize stream clean outs, charity events etc.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

plainjaneFJC

Deplorable
Lol, half my employees are felons.
3 things you gotta know.
(1) poop runs downhill
(2) don't chew your fingernails
(3) payday is on friday
 

jdayment

Observer
Have you reached out to any local SAR organizations to state your case? They might have something that you can do even just attending the meetings to get the training you just might not be able to help on any SAR ops.
 

superbuickguy

Explorer
You're way too close in time for anyone to overlook your felony. You need 5-10 years of good citizenship to convince most organizations to take a chance on you. As for expunging your record - most states allow 1 conviction to be expunged after 10 years of clean living. You actually have 2 felonies so you're looking at 20 years before you can clean your record. Your conviction will never go away because there is no expunging your parallel Federal record (one of the most annoying things about expungement). With that said, most volunteer organizations will overlook a great deal if you're committed and don't become a problem to them. The standard is higher for you then it is anyone else - but you will find that if you're a hard, honest worker - most organizations will give you a chance. That said, you're going to wear the badge for awhile so you might as well accept it and do what you can do with what you've got now.... and if you can maintain that attitude, you'll do well. Whatever you do, never pull the (and I noted that you didn't) "someone had it out for me" prison song that many get. Own it, don't let it own you and don't ever make excuses.

Good luck.
 

FJOE

Regular Dude
You mentioned wanting to serve your country. What about the Army? I know that when I joined the military years ago (out now) The Army was taking one time felons (depending on the conviction, cases-by-case basis). Now I know that in a climate where budgets are everything they can afford to be picky, but you never know.
 

Louisd75

Adventurer

Forum statistics

Threads
185,534
Messages
2,875,615
Members
224,922
Latest member
Randy Towles
Top