{"id":4194,"date":"2004-06-25T15:30:22","date_gmt":"2004-06-25T20:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/?p=4194"},"modified":"2026-05-20T14:10:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T19:10:55","slug":"guatemala-to-give-all-police-lie-detector-tests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/2004\/06\/25\/guatemala-to-give-all-police-lie-detector-tests\/","title":{"rendered":"“Guatemala to Give All Police Lie Detector Tests”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n

The following Reuters AlertNet report is cited here in full: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

GUATEMALA CITY, June 25 (Reuters) – Every member of the police force in Guatemala will be subjected to lie detector tests and background checks after police were found running criminal gangs, President Oscar Berger said on Friday.<\/p>

Berger said it would take four months to investigate the Central American country’s 22,000 police.<\/p>

He did not say what would happen to police who failed the tests but suggested they could lose their jobs.<\/p>

“I believe that most of the police are good people and will stay on,” Berger told journalists.<\/p>

Guatemala has previously given lie detector tests and background checks to police suspected of taking part in the drug trade.<\/p>

Reports of police involvement in organized crime have come to the surface in recent weeks.<\/p>

Internal police investigations have led to arrests of police officers alleged to run crime gangs, one dedicated to kidnappings.<\/p>

Nine people, including six police, were arrested on Wednesday, accused of forming a gang involved in extorting money from drivers and murder.<\/p>

The arrests came hours after gunmen hijacked a city bus and shot and killed two sign painters, the start of a crime-ridden 48 hours in which at least 19 people died in different incidents.<\/p>

Analysts say a homicide conviction rate of five percent can be largely attributed to the power organized crime has on the streets and within the justice system.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

President Berger’s desire to reign in police corruption is laudable. But reliance on polygraph screening — a pseudoscientific procedure that is widely known not to work — is the wrong way to go about cleaning up a police force.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following Reuters AlertNet report is cited here in full: GUATEMALA CITY, June 25 (Reuters) – Every member of the police force in Guatemala will be subjected to lie detector tests and background checks after police were found running criminal gangs, President Oscar Berger said on Friday. 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