Original reporting and commentary about polygraphs, voice stress analyzers, and other purported "lie detectors."
Saipan Tribune staff reporter Edith G. Alejandro reports. Excerpt: The Department of Public Safety yesterday disclosed that applicants for the new batch of the Police Academy will undergo polygraph test in January 2003 prior to the release of the names of those who will be accepted to the institution. Police Commissioner Edward Camacho and officer-in-charge …
Ryan Goudelocke reports for The Advocate of Baton Rouge, Louisana. Excerpt: They’re called “lie detectors” for a reason: For decades polygraph operators have claimed the ability to sniff out deception by asking searching questions and watching squiggly lines drawn on paper. And it’s a staple of crime fiction: Usually there’s a harshly lit room where …
Political correspondent Brendan Nicolson reports for The Age. Excerpt: Lie detector tests being carried out on officers of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation were not scientifically proven, and could be beaten by real spies and incriminate innocent officers, the Federal Opposition has warned. Labor’s justice spokesman Daryl Melham told The Sunday Age that the polygraph, …
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 …
John Steinbachs reports for the Ottawa Sun. Excerpt: Every year, thousands of hopeful RCMP recruits face a battery of tests and background checks in their quest to wear the red serge. Now, the federal police force is considering using lie detectors to make sure recruits have the integrity to be a Mountie. Internal proposals to …
Oakland Tribune staff writer Ian Hoffman reports. Excerpt: Hundreds of nuclear weapons scientists and intelligence analysts will still be strapped to the polygraph machine for the time being, despite a recent report concluding that polygraphs miss spies and tar the innocent as security risks. The U.S. Energy Department is racing to change its routine polygraph …
Texas A&M sophomore Melissa Fried comments on polygraphy in this opinion article. Excerpt: The U.S. Defense and Intelligence communities have taken a beating during the past few months due to their inconstant state of efficiency – sometimes they know what they are doing, sometimes they do not. Regardless of the criticism, the American public still …
In this Washington Post editorial, the Post comments on polygraph policy in light of the National Academy of Sciences’ devastatingly critical report on polygraphy, concluding: One obvious conclusion from this sobering account is that more rigorous studies of polygraphs and their applications in government need to take place. A large number of people every year …
Dr. Drew C. Richardson calls for the abolishment of polygraph screening in this Washington Times op-ed piece. Excerpt: Recently, the National Academy of Sciences issued a landmark report regarding the use of polygraphy by various federal agencies. Although many issues were explored and several conclusions were drawn, none was more important than the finding that …
Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy discusses the National Academy of Science’s polygraph report in his Secrecy News e-mail publication: NATIONAL ACADEMY ON POLYGRAPH TESTING The polygraph is a flawed instrument that is “intrinsically susceptible to producing erroneous results,” according to a new report of a National Academy of …