Continuous Vetting Rap Back Program Update

The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) is responsible for running the DoD’s Continuous Vetting (CV) Program. They also enroll non-DoD agency employees into CE. One part of the CE program, run by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), is called Rap Back, which is short for “Record of Arrest and Prosecution Background.”  Prior to the FBI deploying Rap Back, a national criminal history background check provided only a one-time snapshot of an individual’s Criminal History Record Information (CHRI).  Now, the FBI’s Rap Back enables authorized agencies to receive ongoing notifications of any CHRI reported to the FBI after an individual has been enrolled in the system.

DCSA released the latest statistics for Rap Back enrollments which stood at over 602,000. To date in calendar year 2024, there were 2,232 alerts involving employees enrolled in Rap Back. The reasons for some of these alerts ranged from arrests for criminal conduct, active warrants, court disposition updates for criminal charges, and even one for a deceased person whose fingerprints were captured at a crime scene. Of course, the number one reason for an alert was for the employee getting arrested for criminal conduct which had 1,258 alerts by itself. These alerts are reviewed by adjudicators who determine the seriousness of the conduct, whether the person was required to report it, or if more information is needed to mitigate the concern. Of course, it helps if NBIS, the system DCSA uses to process all of these alerts, would be more stable and not so glitchy – read here!