Author archives

Michigan State Police Polygrapher Who Wrongly Accused Innocent Woman Named

The Michigan State Police polygraph operator who falsely accused Lisa Hansen of Grand Rapids of deception regarding the alleged embezzlement of funds from her employer has been identified as Sergeant Ben Escalante. On 23 August 2006, Grand Rapids WZZM 13 News reported: The Muskegon based public interest group Innocent, today called for a public apology …

Suspect Detection Systems’ Cogito Passenger Screening Trial at Knoxville Airport

The Transportation Safety Administration conducted a trial run of Suspect Detection Systems’ polygraph-derived passenger screening system, dubbed “Cogito,” at the Knoxville airport (presumably McGhee Tyson Airport), the Wall Street Journal reported Monday, 14 August in an article by Jonathan Karp and Laura Meckler titled, “Which Travelers Have ‘Hostile Intent’? Biometric Device May Have the Answer.” …

Lies Wide Open

On Sunday, 6 August 2006, the San Francisco Chronicle published in its Insight section an article by Vicki Haddock titled, “Lies Wide Open” about fMRI based “lie detection.” Excerpt: Imagine a day when a machine can perform a search and seizure of your mind, pronouncing judgment on whether you are telling the truth — in …

wikiHow on “How to Cheat a Polygraph Test”

On 2 August 2006, the popular collaborative website wikiHow gave featured billing on its homepage to an earlier-written article titled “How to Cheat a Polygraph Test (Lie Detector).” The article appears to have reached a wide audience, having been accessed more than 95,000 times at the time of this writing. Public comments on the article, …

To Catch a Liar

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) television program Catalyst examined lie detection in an episode titled, “To Catch a Liar”: How good are you at spotting a lie? We’re lied to up to 100 times a day, yet research shows fewer than one in a 1000 people can reliably detect lies. But science has declared a …

California Court to Rely on Polygraphs for Sentencing Rapists

Chris Durant of the Eureka, California Times-Standard reports in “Rape sentencing awaiting polygraph results”: EUREKA — The four men who are accused of holding a woman in their Whitethorn home in March and repeatedly raping her entered guilty pleas to some charges Monday, but their exact sentences won’t be determined until after each are polygraphed. …

Antipolygraph Legislation Advances in Israel

A committee of the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, is proceding with legislation that would ban polygraphs from the workplace. Sheera Claire Frankel reports for the Jerusalem Post: The Knesset Labor, Health and Sports Committee moved forward on a law to ban the use of Knesset polygraph testing in the workplace on Monday. MK Zahava Gal-On …

Lie Catchers Stand by Their Polygraphs

Christian Toto writes for the Metro section of today’s (29 June 2006) Washington Times in “Lie catchers stand by their polygraphs.” The article is cited here in its entirety, interspersed with commentary: Detective Leonard Keeler developed the first lie detector — or polygraph — test in the 1930s, and the machines used today are not …