Original reporting and commentary about polygraphs, voice stress analyzers, and other purported "lie detectors."
Gloria Campisi reports for the Philadelphia Daily News. Excerpt: The Philadelphia Police Department is scrapping the polygraph test as a hiring tool. Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson said yesterday more intensive background checks would replace the lie detector test, which has been in use here for more than 20 years. The action was hailed by a …
Scott Shane reports for the Baltimore Sun. Excerpt: The FBI will soon begin giving polygraph exams to scores of employees at the Army’s bio- defense center at Fort Detrick in Frederick and at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah to see if a government insider mailed the anthrax that killed five people last fall, an FBI …
Associated Press writer Christopher Newman reports. Excerpt: WASHINGTON (AP) – The Justice Department is preparing to give lie detector tests to hundreds of federal workers at two facilities where anthrax is stored, hoping to identify suspects in the letter attacks, a law enforcement official said Monday. Beginning in June, the government will administer the tests …
Pierre Thomas reports for ABCNews.com. This short article is cited here in full: May 20 — The government will launch a wide-ranging program of polygraph testing to determine if one of its own employees is responsible for last year’s anthrax attacks, ABCNEWS has learned. As many as 200 current and former employees at Fort Detrick …
In an article titled, “FBI seeks to rebuild its image,” Chris Mondics of the Philadelphia Inquirer Washington bureau reports that Roger L. Trott, chief of the FBI’s agent training unit, asserts that nearly half of FBI agent applicants who pass preliminary tests don’t pass the polygraph. Excerpt: …The bureau expects to hire only about 5 …
Luke Turf of the Yuma Sun reports on the Arizona Department of Corrections’ use of polygraphy. Excerpt: Three correctional officers at the state prison in Yuma were wrongfully disciplined because the Department of Corrections relies too heavily on polygraphs, an attorney for the employees and state Sen. Herb Guenther say. Martin Bihn is the attorney …
The Associated Press reports on Glynn County, Georgia’s use of and professed belief in “Computer Voice Stress Analysis” (CVSA). Excerpt: BRUNSWICK, Ga. — Glynn County police have become true believers in a new sort of lie detector that analyzes stress in a suspect’s voice, but other police departments are not convinced. The Computer Voice Stress …
Louise Dickson reports on the first use of Computerized Voice Stress Analysis (CVSA) by Canadian police in this puff piece published in the Victoria Times Colonist. Excerpt: “Did you actually see Ruth shoot Billy?” “Yes,” the suspect replied. “Did you shoot Billy?” “No.” But the image on the computer screen told another story. In this …
Palm Beach Post staff writer Eliot Kleinberg reports. Excerpt: Priests in the Diocese of Palm Beach should have to swear in writing that they never engaged in sexual misconduct, and be offered lie detector tests should there be any doubt, a top church critic says. In fact, Ed Ricci says, he’ll pay for the polygraphs. …
Washington Post staff writers Steve Fainaru and Amy Goldstein report on the case of Osama Awadallah in an article titled, “Judge Rejects Jailing Of Material Witnesses.” Excerpt: NEW YORK, April 30 — A key legal tactic employed by the government in its post-Sept. 11 war on terror is illegal, a federal judge ruled today, delivering …