In an article titled, “FBI seeks to rebuild its image,” Chris Mondics of the Philadelphia Inquirer Washington bureau reports that Roger L. Trott, chief of the FBI’s agent training unit, asserts that nearly half of FBI agent applicants who pass preliminary tests don’t pass the polygraph. Excerpt:
…The bureau expects to hire only about 5 percent of the 20,000-plus people who have submitted applications since the beginning of the year.
Applicants are tested on analytical math and communications skills. Trott says that nearly half the applicants who survive the written tests and the interviews typically don’t pass the polygraph on past drug use, potential security risks, and other issues.
If Trott is right, then the percentage of FBI applicants who fail to pass the polygraph is up sharply from an earlier figure of about 20%. Perhaps, with the surge in applications following the events of 11 September 2001, the FBI has decided that it can afford to arbitrarily disqualify more applicants based on polygraph chart readings.