Original reporting and commentary about polygraphs, voice stress analyzers, and other purported "lie detectors."
Roselyn Romero reports for The Oaklandside that the City Council of Oakland, California, has approved contracts totaling $800,000 to two private companies for the polygraph screening of Oakland Police Department applicants. Excerpt: Last week, the Oakland City Council approved contracts with two companies at a cost of $800,000 over six years — roughly $133,000 per year — …
On Tuesday, 4 June 2024, the San Francisco Chronicle published a well-researched investigative article by Susie Neilson and Matthias Gafni on the use of the Computer Voice Stress Analyzer (CVSA) by law enforcement agencies, especially in the state of California. The article, published under the lengthy title, “It’s been called junk science as accurate as …
AntiPolygraph.org has confirmed with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) that its Office of Peace Officer Selection, which in 2016 began using Computer Voice Stress Analysis (CVSA) to screen applicants, terminated this practice in May of 2023. CVSA is a thoroughly discredited, pseudoscientific lie detector that since 1988 has been marketed by the …
In July 2020, the Santa Clara County, California District Attorney’s Office charged Robert E. Foster, then a polygraph operator with the San Jose Police Department, “with using his private security company to commit insurance fraud, tax evasion, wage theft, and about $18 million in money laundering.” On Friday, 14 January 2022, the Santa Clara County, …
At a meeting of the San Diego City Council’s Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods Committee held on 16 June 2021, Captain Rudy Tai of the San Diego Police Department (SDPD) mentioned that the pre-employment polygraph screening process now includes questioning about hate crimes and racial bias. As part of a “Recruitment and Retention Update” Tai …
North County Times staff writer Tim Mayer reports in an article titled, “Fogelstrom said investigators deceived them” that the Riverside County (California) Sheriff’s Department conducted a coercive polygraph examination of a minor under false pretenses. Excerpt: CARLSBAD —- The father of the teenage companion of 17-year-old Eric Sears —- who was found dead in Joshua …
Lisa Fernandez reports for the San Jose Mercury News. Excerpt: The man accused of but never charged with being the prime suspect in a string of Feb. 23 shootings along Interstate 580 in the East Bay has agreed to take a polygraph test, hoping to show he wasn’t responsible, his public defender said. Matt Bockmon, …
Davis Enterprise staff writer Elisabeth Sherwin reports in an article titled, “Sheriff Prieto pushes high standards.” Excerpt: [Yolo County Sheriff Ed Prieto] said 15 people interviewed recently to become deputy sheriffs. As part of the screening process, candidates are routinely given polygraph tests. Out of the 15 who took the test, only four passed and …
In an article titled, “Long arm of the law reaches out for help,” San Diego Union-Tribune staff writer Shanna McCord reports on the SDPD pre-employment polygraph failure rate. Excerpt: And then there’s a lie detector test, which weeds out a large number of applicants. “Number one for us is honesty,” said Stacee Botsford, a recruiter …
Pasadena (California) Star News staff writer Emmanuel Parker reports in an article titled, “Fatal fire in 200[0] remains unsolved.” Excerpt: ALTADENA — Sometimes the simplest crimes are the hardest to solve. So it is with the death of Justine Marie Kaposy, 14, a popular Rose City High School student burned beyond recognition on December 3, …