Original reporting and commentary about polygraphs, voice stress analyzers, and other purported "lie detectors."
Mark Dadigan reports for the Vero Beach Press Journal. Excerpt: The pace of your heartbeats quickens, your breaths deepen and beads of sweat slide down your skin. According to some law-enforcement circles, you’ve probably just lied. Since the 1930s, polygraphs, or lie-detector tests, which theoretically link physiological changes to honesty, have been used as investigative …
Staff writer Steven Mayer of the Bakersfield Californian reports. Excerpt: When Escondido police questioned 14-year-old Michael Crowe in the days following the 1998 stabbing death of his 12-year-old sister, investigators used a Computer Voice Stress Analyzer during the interrogation. The analyzer — a lie detector of sorts used by an estimated 1,300 police agencies in …
Christina Lewis reports for Court TV. Excerpt: (Court TV) – Richard Allen Nicolas’ story seemed suspicious. An unknown gunman shot at his car, killing his 2-year-old daughter, Aja. Plus, police found that his muffler was cold, although Nicolas said he had been parked a short time. But police had little hard evidence against Nicolas until …
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 …
Associated Press writer Michael Rubinkam reports on the pseudoscience of voice stress analysis. Excerpt: PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Police want to know if a suspect is lying, but the polygraph test comes back inconclusive. What’s an exasperated interrogator to do? Increasingly, law enforcement agencies are using a technology that measures “voice stress” — small frequency modulations …
Marsha Paxson gullibly reports on Computerized Voice Stress Analysis (CVSA) for the Lake Sun Leader of Camdenton, Missouri. Excerpt: MORGAN COUNTY – The same type of lie detection machine used to test former President Bill Clinton when he claimed not to have had sex with Monica Lewinksy is now being used in the arsenal against …
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 …
Margie Wylie reports for the Newhouse News Service in a well-researched article on CVSA. Excerpt: Police departments across the country are buying the controversial Computer Voice Stress Analyzer, which its manufacturer claims can tell when a person is lying merely by the sound of his voice. When a suspect speaks, a computer program “listens” for …