Original reporting and commentary about polygraphs, voice stress analyzers, and other purported "lie detectors."
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 …
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 …
Brandon Spun reports in the 4 February 2002 issue of Insight magazine on experimental detection of deception/concealed information techniques. Spun specifically addresses Dr. Larry Farwell’s “brain fingerprinting” technique, Dr. Daniel Langleben’s fMRI research, and Dr. James Levine and collaborators’ thermal imaging technology.
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 …