“New Voice in Lie Detection”

Staff writer Robert Sanchez of the suburban Chicago Daily Herald reports on voice stress analysis. Excerpt:

A technique called voice stress analysis claims to make lie detecting as simple as listening to someone talk. Using a computer laptop, special software and a microphone, an interviewer can determine if someone is telling the truth.

Local police departments say the technique is so simple and inexpensive they are pushing to get Illinois law changed so they can use it during investigations.

“You could use it to question people and eliminate them as suspects in a crime,” said Gurnee police Detective Jack Metcalf, who learned about voice stress during a recent training session attended by investigators from Cook, Lake and McHenry counties.

It is disturbing to think that a police detective would eliminate (or include) a suspect because he/she passed (or failed) a pseudoscientific voice stress test.

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