Original reporting and commentary about polygraphs, voice stress analyzers, and other purported "lie detectors."
Roselyn Romero reports for The Oaklandside that the City Council of Oakland, California, has approved contracts totaling $800,000 to two private companies for the polygraph screening of Oakland Police Department applicants. Excerpt: Last week, the Oakland City Council approved contracts with two companies at a cost of $800,000 over six years — roughly $133,000 per year — …
On Thursday, 18 July 2024, Kandie Alisha Meinhart of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, in a plea agreement pleaded guilty to third degree murder in connection with the death of her infant daughter, Li’Aziah Thomas, and was sentenced to 30-60 years in prison. Meinhart had previously professed innocence in the matter. Approximately two months after Li’Aziah’s death …
On Tuesday, 4 June 2024, the San Francisco Chronicle published a well-researched investigative article by Susie Neilson and Matthias Gafni on the use of the Computer Voice Stress Analyzer (CVSA) by law enforcement agencies, especially in the state of California. The article, published under the lengthy title, “It’s been called junk science as accurate as …
On 18 August 2020, AntiPolygraph.org reported that Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, a former CIA officer and FBI contract linguist charged with espionage, had evidently beaten the polygraph to penetrate the FBI. It now seems clear that this was not the case. On Friday, 24 May 2024, Ma pled guilty to “Conspiracy to Gather and Communicate …
AntiPolygraph.org has confirmed with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) that its Office of Peace Officer Selection, which in 2016 began using Computer Voice Stress Analysis (CVSA) to screen applicants, terminated this practice in May of 2023. CVSA is a thoroughly discredited, pseudoscientific lie detector that since 1988 has been marketed by the …
Dr. J. Wesley Boyd writes for Psychology Today on the insidious practice of state physician health programs compelling physicians to submit to polygraph “testing.” Excerpt: I am a former associate director in a state physician health program (PHP). I also hold faculty appointments at Baylor College of Medicine and Harvard Medical School in medical ethics …
On 18 September 2023, former South Carolina personal injury attorney Richard Alexander “Alex” Murdaugh entered into a plea agreement with federal prosecutors whereby he pled guilty to 22 criminal counts pertaining to wire fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering. Earlier that year, Murdaugh had been convicted in state court for the murder of his wife …
Since it began mandatory polygraph screening more than a decade ago, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the parent agency of the U.S. Border Patrol, has had one of the highest pre-employment polygraph failure rates in the federal government, with up to two-thirds of applicants who make it as far as the polygraph being disqualified based …
The minutes of the 18 July 2023 meeting of the state of Virginia’s Polygraph Examiners Advisory Board reveal that “in March of 2023 Board staff attended a demonstration for Computer Voice Stress Analyzer (CVSA). CVSA software programs are designed to measure changes in voice patterns caused by the stress, or the physical effort, of trying …
On Friday, 15 September 2023, brothers Steve and Dan, the hosts of Publicly Buzzed, a YouTube channel focused on crime, mystery, and comedy, spoke about polygraphs with AntiPolygraph.org co-founder George Maschke in a live broadcast that can be replayed here: