In an article entitled, “Sheriff’s office asks county for polygraph,” Alicia Henrikson of the Topeka Capital-Journal writes:
The Shawnee County Sheriff’s Department has never had anyone trained to operate a polygraph instrument.
The department has never had such a need because it doesn’t have a polygraph.
That may be about to change. The sheriff’s department is asking the county commission to approve the purchase of a polygraph instrument and training for an officer to use the machine. The $19,700 cost will cover the polygraph, training and a laptop computer.
“The perception in law enforcement circles is that polygraphs are more reliable than voice stress analyzers,” Undersheriff Dan Breci said. “Large departments usually have polygraphs and people trained to use polygraph instruments.”
Shawnee County officials need to understand that while both voice stress analyzers and polygraphs may be good props for an interrogation, neither of these techniques have been shown by competent scientific research to operate at better than chance levels of accuracy. See George Maschke’s action alert for details on how you can help set Shawnee County officials straight on lie detectors.