John Steinbachs reports for the Ottawa Sun. Excerpt:
Every year, thousands of hopeful RCMP recruits face a battery of tests and background checks in their quest to wear the red serge.
Now, the federal police force is considering using lie detectors to make sure recruits have the integrity to be a Mountie.
Internal proposals to make the polygraph test a mandatory part of the RCMP hiring process have been put forward to RCMP senior management, although one of the major stumbling blocks appears to be funding concerns.
If approved, the task of screening new RCMP applicants would be the largest polygraph program ever attempted in Canada.
The Mounties are looking to hire about 1,000 officers a year for the next several years. To get that many qualified candidates, the force might need to test 2,500 applicants a year, says Staff Sgt. Bob McMillan, head of the RCMP’s truth verification section.
He believes the number of applicants will remain high until word of the polygraph test spreads.
“When people start realizing the program is there, unsuitable people will probably drop off,” McMillan says.
As in all pre-employment polygraph examinations, the test would not be used to draw out admissions from candidates, but to ensure candidates are telling the truth about their lives.
“We need to know people are going to be truthful up front in the application process, because that’s what gives us the confidence that people are going to also be truthful when it comes to things like court,” says McMillan.
“I’d like to see it up and running tomorrow. It’s very big, and it’s all really dependent on when and if the funds are released to us. Once they’re released we’ll be able to put things into high gear.”
CONTRACT OUT
The force will likely have to contract out some of the testing, but McMillan says there are many highly qualified polygraphers in Canada who would likely be available for the job.
“We’ve been looking at it for a number of years and it’s just taken this long to get our ducks in a row and get over all the issues that have been brought forward by the legal people.”
If the RCMP goes forward with the polygraph proposal, it will be joining police forces in eastern and western provinces that already use the test to ensure the truthfulness of candidates. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service also uses the tests.
In Ontario, the use of polygraph tests on police candidates contravenes the Employment Standards Act.
The Calgary Police Service was one of the first forces to introduce the polygraph as a pre-employment test 31 years ago. Both sworn officers and civilian employees must be given a test before they can be hired.
Calgary police conduct about 450 tests every year, says Det. Wally Musker, one of the polygraphers who carries out the three-and-a-half-hour tests.
“I think we do more in Canada than anyone,” says Musker. “What we’re dealing with is people who have been screened through 14 prior (employment screening) steps and then what we do is provide them with a polygraph test to verify the information they’ve provided throughout the hiring process.”
Long before the polygraph is administered, test applicants must pass through several checks including physical, psychological and criminal. They are also required to answer a series of questions about everything from traffic tickets to drug use.
They’re also asked whether they believe they have ever committed an offence for which they have not been convicted.
“The questions are very specific; there’s nothing left up to chance,” says Musker, who also trains others in how to administer pre-employment tests.
Despite polygrapher Wally Musker’s representations to the contrary, relying on pseudoscientific polygraph “testing” is leaving a lot to chance.