Original reporting and commentary about polygraphs, voice stress analyzers, and other purported "lie detectors."
Brian Kalish reports for GovernmentExecutive.com on the House of Representatives’ unanimous passage of the Anti-Border Corruption Act of 2010 (PDF) mandating that within two years, “all applicants for law enforcement positions with U.S. Customs and Border Protection receive polygraph examinations before being hired for such a position.” Currently, only 15% of CBP applicants are polygraphed, …
The National Security Agency (NSA) has produced a video about its polygraph screening program. Watch it here, along with AntiPolygraph.org’s commentary: The original source video is available here. For commentary on the NSA’s accompanying polygraph leaflet, see our earlier blog post, NSA Leaflet: Your Polygraph Examination. For a thorough debunking of polygraphy, with extensive citations …
On Thursday, 11 March 2010, in testimony before a subcommittee of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, it was disclosed that the failure rate associated with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) pre-employment polygraph screening program stands at 60 percent. New York Times correspondent Randal C. Archibold reports, among other things: Polygraph examinations, which officials …
Following up on his previous article on the San Francisco Police Department’s reliance on polygraph screening–despite broad scientific consensus that it is invalid–S.F. Weekly reporter Matt Smith takes an in-depth look at the man the SFPD has hired to polygraph applicants: Patrick T. Coffey, who received “$81,463 during the last fiscal year” for his services. …
In a well-researched article, S.F. Weekly reporter Matt Smith critically examines the SFPD’s reliance on polygraphy for applicant screening, despite it being completely discredited among scientists. Those interviewed include retired FBI scientist Dr. Drew Richardson, Professor Stephen Fienberg, who headed a National Academy of Sciences panel that reviewed the scientific evidence on polygraphy, and polygraph …
Emory University professor of psychology Scott Lilienfeld, who pens Psychology Today’s The Skeptical Psychologist blog, lambastes polygraphy (and the U.S. government’s continued reliance on this pseudoscience) in an article titled, “The Polygraph Strikes–and Strikes Out–Again.”
Despite a 2003 finding by the National Academy of Sciences that “[polygraph testing’s] accuracy in distinguishing actual or potential security violators from innocent test takers is insufficient to justify reliance on its use in employee security screening in federal agencies,” an internal memorandum to employees at Los Alamos National Laboratory posted on the blog, LANL: …
Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists’ Secrecy in Government Project reports in his Secrecy News electronic newsletter and blog: A former polygrapher for the Central Intelligence Agency has filed a lawsuit (pdf) alleging that the Agency unlawfully retaliated against him for publishing a critical account of CIA polygraph programs. John Sullivan, author of …
In this 1986 exposé of the polygraph trade, CBS 60 Minutes set up a test in which three polygraph examiners chosen at random from the New York telephone directory were asked to administer polygraph examinations to four different employees of the CBS-owned magazine, Popular Photography, regarding the theft of a camera and lens. In fact, …
On 12 December 2001, CBS 60 Minutes II aired an investigative report on polygraph screening. Produced by Shawn Efran and reported by Scott Pelley, the report takes an in-depth look at the U.S. Government’s misplaced reliance on polygraph screening. The concerns raised in this report remain as valid today as they were five years ago. …