Suppose a person has committed a serious felony, and escapes detection and arrest for it until after the statute of limitations has expired, then applies to the police academy and becomes a police officer. If this felony was ever discovered, what would be done?

If the officer was found to have concealed this information during his pre-employment background investigation, he would likely be fired. In a background investigation, you're required to come clean. Nothing is off the record, sealed, expunged, etc. If you did it, you're expected to own up to it, even if was never previously discovered or charged as a crime. A common question on background forms and in polygraph examinations is "Have you ever committed an undiscovered felony?"

One of my police academy classmates lost his job doing something similar to this. At the time, my former employer relied heavily on the polygraph to reveal disqualifying information, and didn't invest a lot of time and effort with interviewing former employers and acquaintances (BIG mistake--they do things a bit differently now).

My classmate owned up to have been a police officer elsewhere, but the details were limited to war stories of adventure and close calls. He was a very colorful guy. He talked such a legend that, on graduation, he skipped field training and uniformed patrol, and went straight to the elite plainclothes street crimes unit.

A few months into our probationary year, there was an epic cop party at an officer's home. My classmate inveigled one of our civilian clerks into a bathroom, where they had an encounter that was not entirely consensual. When she complained, the officer was placed on admin leave while they looked into this more closely, and started making the calls they should have made in the first place. It turned out this wasn't the first time he had decided not to take "no" for an answer. He was summarily canned, and probably should have been prosecuted (that would have required the police department masters to admit they didn't vet officer applicants very carefully, so that wasn't going to happen).

I know of a more recent case of a highway patrol trooper who had an enviable performance record that spanned close to ten years, one that included arresting a man who was at that time on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List. I'm not sure how it came to light, but it was discovered he had once been caught by U.S. Customs, trying to bring a package of anabolic steroids over the border from Mexico. He was cited and paid a fine, and his pickup truck was impounded. He never mentioned this in his pre-hire background investigation. He was fired, and I last I heard he was working as a tribal cop on a reservation.

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from Quora https://www.quora.com/Suppose-a-person-has-committed-a-serious-felony-and-escapes-detection-and-arrest-for-it-until-after-the-statute-of-limitations-has-expired-then-applies-to-the-police-academy-and-becomes-a-police-officer-If-this-felony-was-ever-discovered-what-would-be-done/answer/Tim-Dees