Original reporting and commentary about polygraphs, voice stress analyzers, and other purported "lie detectors."
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. …
The FBI obfuscates and evades in a written response to questions posed by Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) regarding the Bureau’s polygraph screening program. Senator Grassley’s questions, and the FBI’s responses, appear at pp. 47-50 of a document submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee on 30 November 2006 and made available by the Federation of American …
In an e-mail message posted to LANL: The Corporate Story, an anonymous physics undergrad has written about a recent (October, 2006) CIA polygraph screening examination administered in connection with his application for a summer 2007 internship.
Brad Lee Holian, a Laboratory Associate at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and fellow of the American Physical Society, is organizing employee resistance against planned random polygraph and drug screening at the lab. Holian, who has worked as a theoretical physicist at LANL for more than thirty years, has publicized his proposal via the blog …