Original reporting and commentary about polygraphs, voice stress analyzers, and other purported "lie detectors."
Palm Beach Post staff writer Bill Douthat reports on alleged impropriety in the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. The allegations involve polygrapher Harold Thomas Sorensen, a member of the Florida Polygraph Association. Excerpt: A sheriff’s polygrapher who gave a lie detector test to the daughter of his boss failed to properly report her deceptive answers …
The South African Press Association reports on the polygraph interrogation of Luyanda Mboniswa, who is accused in the strangulation and stabbing death of Marike de Klerk, the ex-wife of former South African president F.W. de Klerk. Excerpt: Cape Town The man accused of murdering former first lady Marike de Klerk, Luyanda Mboniswa, failed a second …
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 …
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 …
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 …
In an article titled “Two others in case arrested on drug charges,” Cape Cod Times staff writers Karen Jeffrey and Emily C. Dooley report on the investigation of the murder of fashion writer Christa Worthington, whose body was discovered on 6 January 2002. Excerpt: The father of Christa Worthington will be asked to take a …
Staff writer Bryn Mickle of the Flint Journal reports on post-conviction polygraph “testing” of sex offenders in Michigan. Excerpt: Hooked up to a machine that measured his body’s response to questions, a convicted Burton sex offender spent about 45 minutes Tuesday answering “yes” or “no” to queries about his activities in the month since he …
Manny Garcia, Peter Wallsten, and Amy Driscoll of the Miami Herald report of reliance on polygraphy in determining the credibiliy of statements made by an informant. Excerpt: The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the FBI are investigating a possible plot to kill Gov. Jeb Bush with a truck bomb in Tallahassee, law enforcement officials …
The St. Petersburg Times calls for dumping the polygraph in this editorial. Excerpt: In a stark overreaction to the spying allegations against Wen Ho Lee, a scientist at the Los Alamos weapons lab in New Mexico, Congress ordered the Energy Department to begin a massive polygraph screening program for employees at the nation’s nuclear weapons …