Will My Job Know If I’ve Been Convicted or Charged With a Crime in DC?

Typically, no, but there are exceptions. Being arrested is not typically public in the sense of being broadcast out to the public at large. Anyone who is doing a background check theoretically has the ability to find out if you’ve been arrested and charged, but they would have to be proactive about that. Unless you, as a defendant, tell your boss, it is unlikely that they’re going to immediately know that you have been arrested.

There are exceptions to that in the sense that if you work in law enforcement or one of the sensitive agencies in the District of Columbia, they very well might find out about your arrest on their own. There are many people here in the District of Columbia who work with a security clearance and they are required to notify their work that they have, in fact, been arrested and charged. Whether or not they tell their employer is ultimately their decision, but there are many circumstances where an employee will feel compelled to tell their employer. The fact that you have been actually charged with or convicted of a crime will not necessarily be known by your employer unless your employer is doing some form of background check.