Original reporting and commentary about polygraphs, voice stress analyzers, and other purported "lie detectors."
In an article titled, “FBI Flooded With Applicants,” Los Angeles Times staff writer William Overend reports that about 20% of special agent applicants who make it as far as the polygraph fail it. Excerpt: Mike Hilliard, who retired three years ago after 21 years as the chief recruiting agent in Los Angeles, estimated that about …
In a Dallas Morning News article titled “Narcotics unit has troubled past,” Robert Tharp reports on a massive but fruitless polygraph dragnet conducted by the FBI in the Dallas Police Department’s narcotics unit in 1996. Excerpt: The FBI investigated the narcotics division in 1996 at the request of former Chief Ben Click following the disappearance …
Ken Brownlee writes about voice stress analysis for Claims magazine. Excerpt: My wife came back from shopping yesterday and told me she had been listening to Clark Howard, the nation’s Number One Cheapskate, on WSB, an Atlanta radio station. She told me that he had said that Lloyd’s of London had decided to take statements …
Donna J. Robb reports for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Excerpt: Akron – A Summit County inmate admitted yesterday that his headline-grabbing claim of being a serial killer was an elaborate lie. Jason Roland West apologized to the public and to sheriff’s detectives for sending authorities on a sweeping but fruitless investigation that has dragged on …
Eric Swedlund reports for the Arizona Daily Star in an article titled, “UA on Security’s Cutting Edge.” Excerpt: John Allen, a psychology associate professor, will try to answer this question: “Is Brain ‘Fingerprinting’ Ready for Prime Time?” Conventional polygraphs measure factors such as heart rate and sweaty palms to determine nervousness or anxiety, but “brain …
Eric Swedlund reports for the Arizona Daily Star on a taxpayer-funded research program at the University of Arizona. Excerpt: To boost national security, the Defense Department is paying for a $4 million UA research project on detecting deceit in communication. In the electronic communication age, the military faces more challenges because analysts cannot always rely …
Fiona Harvey of the Financial Times reports on new software that purports to detect deception in electronic text messages. Excerpt: Software that can detect when people are lying in their e-mails sounds a bit far-fetched, but its manufacturers declare it is true. SAS Institute, which makes fraud-detection systems for banks and phone companies, will on …
Julie Novak uncritically reports on Computerized Voice Stress Analysis in this single-source Narragansett Times article. Excerpt: NARRAGANSETT – If you want to tell a lie, don’t tell it to Narragansett Police Lt. Vincent Carlone. The department’s head of detectives has learned how to analyze vocal stress, and with the assistance of a laptop computer he’s …
Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania Press Enterprise writer Michael Reich reports on Computerized Voice Stress Analysis (CVSA). Excerpt: HAZLETON — When someone lies to police here, a “truth verification” machine might be able to sense the fib by recording changes in a person’s voice. Hazleton Police Chief Edward Harry says the machine has led to confessions in 75 …
Cape Cod Times staff writers Karen Jeffrey and Emily C. Dooley report. Excerpt: Asking a murder victim’s father to take a polygraph test is not an unusual tact for police, according to experts on both sides of the polygraph issue. Family and close associates of a victim are the first people police should look at …