In an article entitled “Captain Suspended Over Missing Computers,” Carol Robinson of the Birmingham News writes:
A Birmingham police captain has been suspended for nearly nine weeks for refusing to take a lie detector test in connection with missing departmental computers.
Capt. Ellison Beggs, the highest-ranking officer suspended in recent memory, will be off without pay for 45 working days beginning Feb. 12, according to Chief Mike Coppage’s disciplinary notice filed Wednesday with the Jefferson County Personnel Board.
In many parts of the United States, public employees accused of wrongdoing can be ordered to submit to pseudoscientific lie detector “testing” and punished for merely refusing to submit. By eliminating the governmental exemptions to the 1988 Employee Polygraph Protection Act, we can put an end to such abuse.