Original reporting and commentary about polygraphs, voice stress analyzers, and other purported "lie detectors."
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 …
Stuart Pfeifer of the Los Angeles Times reports on the monitoring of sex offenders in “O.C. to Track Sex Criminals With GPS.” Excerpt: Authorities said the tracking and lie detector tests represent powerful deterrents for offenders and could also tip off police to crimes the probationers might commit. “It is a controversial issue for us. …
A Colorado football player submits to polygraph in gang rape investigation. The Associated Press discusses the use of scientific (DNA) and nonscientific (polygraph) investigative techniques in a report provided on ESPN.com. Excerpt: Campus police have asked some Colorado football players to provide DNA samples as investigators look into a student’s claim she was gang raped …
Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists’ Secrecy in Government Project reports in today’s Secrecy News electronic newsletter: DOE POLYGRAPH POLICY TO BE REPEALED The controversial Department of Energy counterintelligence polygraph program that was enacted by Congress three years ago will be repealed and replaced by a new program, according to the Defense Authorization …