{"id":4928,"date":"2024-06-13T00:38:01","date_gmt":"2024-06-13T05:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/?p=4928"},"modified":"2024-06-13T00:38:02","modified_gmt":"2024-06-13T05:38:02","slug":"s-f-chronicle-publishes-investigative-report-into-use-of-cvsa-by-law-enforcement-agencies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/2024\/06\/13\/s-f-chronicle-publishes-investigative-report-into-use-of-cvsa-by-law-enforcement-agencies\/","title":{"rendered":"S.F. Chronicle Publishes Investigative Report into Use of CVSA by Law Enforcement Agencies"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On Tuesday, 4 June 2024, the San Francisco Chronicle<\/em> published a well-researched investigative article by Susie Neilson<\/a> and Matthias Gafni<\/a> on the use of the Computer Voice Stress Analyzer (CVSA) by law enforcement agencies, especially in the state of California. The article, published under the lengthy title, “It’s been called junk science as accurate as a Ouija board. Why are police agencies using this tool?”<\/a> is a must-read. Excerpt:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Raymond Whitall figured the technology could help him. It was September 2017, and the 58-year-old prisoner at Salinas Valley State Prison in Monterey County had accused guards of beating him without justification months earlier as he lay on the floor of the prison\u2019s gym.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The guards said Whitall \u2014 who suffered from a chronic disease that affected his hearing and balance \u2014 had swung his cane, hitting one of their hands, and that three of them had to physically subdue him. But a prison investigator determined that Whitall\u2019s injuries could not be explained by the guards\u2019 account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then Whitall agreed to take an exam called a Computer Voice Stress Analyzer, or CVSA, that promised to analyze inaudible tremors in his voice and tell trained staff at the prison whether he was telling the truth. No one told Whitall that the device was junk science \u2014 no more accurate at lie detection than a coin flip, according to a litany of research and, at one point, its own inventor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Whitall\u2019s vocal pattern indicated \u201cdeception,\u201d the prison threw out his complaint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For decades, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation used a pseudoscientific technology to assess prisoners\u2019 credibility during investigations, even after researchers debunked the CVSA and after its manufacturer, NITV Federal Services, admitted that it was not capable of detecting lies, a Chronicle investigation has found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, the newspaper identified 13 other law enforcement agencies around California \u2014 including the Berkeley Police Department, the Alameda County Sheriff\u2019s Office and the California Highway Patrol \u2014 that have used the CVSA to interview prospective officers as part of their hiring processes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three of those agencies have also used it in criminal investigations.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Read the rest of the article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AntiPolygraph.org has recently reported<\/a> that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is phasing out CVSA and since May of 2023 has no longer required applicants to submit to CVSA screening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public agencies that persist in using CVSA\u2014a thoroughly discredited pseudoscientific fraud\u2014need to be held accountable for their incomptence, irresponsibility, and betrayal of the public trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raymond Whitall, whose complaint against prison guards was dismissed based on CVSA results, has a federal lawsuit pending, Whitall v. Gutierrez<\/em><\/a> (3:18-cv-01376), filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Tuesday, 4 June 2024, the San Francisco Chronicle published a well-researched investigative article by Susie Neilson and Matthias Gafni on the use of the Computer Voice Stress Analyzer (CVSA) by law enforcement agencies, especially in the state of California. The article, published under the lengthy title, “It’s been called junk science as accurate as …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[339,611,613,612,614,10],"class_list":{"0":"post-4928","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-voice-stress","7":"tag-california","8":"tag-california-department-of-corrections-and-rehabilitation","9":"tag-california-highway-patrol","10":"tag-cdcr","11":"tag-chp","12":"tag-cvsa","13":"anons"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4928"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4929,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4928\/revisions\/4929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}