Following up on his previous article on the San Francisco Police Department’s reliance on polygraph screening–despite broad scientific consensus that it is invalid–S.F. Weekly reporter Matt Smith takes an in-depth look at the man the SFPD has hired to polygraph applicants: Patrick T. Coffey, who received “$81,463 during the last fiscal year” for his services. Smith addresses bigoted postings that Coffey made to the AntiPolygraph.org message board in 2005 under the moniker “TheNoLieGuy4U” and also reveals that Coffey paid $10,000 to settle a 2002 lawsuit by a man who alleged that Coffey “performed a voice-stress-analysis exam on him without permission.”
Personally, I don’t care if Mr. Coffey is politically correct or not when it comes to muslims, mormons, or methodists. The polygraph is junk science run amuck, and polygraph operators are liars and bull shit artists. From what I’ve seen of him, Mr. Coffey is an unethical, thin-skinned liar. That reason enough for me not to let him have anytthing to do with public security in San fransicko, or anywhere else!