{"id":4944,"date":"2024-09-25T00:28:43","date_gmt":"2024-09-25T05:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/?p=4944"},"modified":"2024-09-25T00:34:05","modified_gmt":"2024-09-25T05:34:05","slug":"oakland-city-council-budgets-800000-for-polygraph-screening-of-police-applicants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/2024\/09\/25\/oakland-city-council-budgets-800000-for-polygraph-screening-of-police-applicants\/","title":{"rendered":"Oakland City Council Budgets $800,000 for Polygraph Screening of Police Applicants"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Oakland Police Department shoulder patch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Roselyn Romero<\/a> reports<\/a> for The Oaklandside<\/em> that the City Council of Oakland, California, has approved contracts totaling $800,000 to two private companies for the polygraph screening of Oakland Police Department applicants. Excerpt:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Last week, the Oakland City Council approved<\/a> contracts with two companies at a cost of $800,000 over six years \u2014 roughly $133,000 per year \u2014 to administer polygraph tests as part of OPD\u2019s hiring process for police officers and dispatchers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes called \u201clie detectors,\u201d polygraph machines measure a person\u2019s physical responses \u2014 heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, or perspiration \u2014 as they answer questions. Polygraph examiners claim a \u201cheightened\u201d physiological response could indicate a lie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But lots of experts say polygraphs don\u2019t work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leonard Saxe, a psychologist at Brandeis University, told The Oaklandside that there is no scientific proof that polygraphs can be used successfully to screen job applicants and detect attempts to deceive. Saxe\u2019s research<\/a> on polygraph examinations in the 1980s led the U.S. Department of Labor to enact the Employee Polygraph Protection Act<\/a>, which bars most private employers from using lie detectors for the hiring process or during an employee\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Oakland police are spending $800,000 on something that has been so discredited,\u201d Saxe said. \u201cIf people wanted to defeat the polygraph, there are books on how to beat it. So in 2024, it doesn\u2019t make a whole lot of sense that they\u2019re doing this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OPD uses polygraph examinations to assess a job candidate\u2019s honesty and \u201cidentify any potential risks that could harm the reputation of the department, city, and the profession as a whole,\u201d the department\u2019s media team wrote in an email to The Oaklandside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a report to the City Council, OPD Chief Floyd Mitchell described in more detail how OPD uses the tests. \u201cCandidates are not eliminated from the background investigation process based on the indication of deception,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIn many cases, additional background information that was not initially provided by the candidate is discovered during the polygraph examination. The process aids the background investigator in quickly identifying background information that may require follow-up.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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Oakland Police Department Chief Floyd Mitchell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

If it is true that the Oakland Police Department does not eliminate applicants “based on the indication of deception,” as OPD Chief Floyd Mitchell avers, then his department is one of only a few with such a policy. One wonders just how many applicants who “fail” the polygraph, but make no disqualifying admission, actually go on to be hired?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AntiPolygraph.org welcomes feedback<\/a> from anyone with knowledge of the Oakland Police Department’s polygraph practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the rest of Roselyn Romero’s excellent report here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roselyn Romero reports for The Oaklandside that the City Council of Oakland, California, has approved contracts totaling $800,000 to two private companies for the polygraph screening of Oakland Police Department applicants. Excerpt: Last week, the Oakland City Council approved contracts with two companies at a cost of $800,000 over six years \u2014 roughly $133,000 per year \u2014 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[339,615,70],"class_list":{"0":"post-4944","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-polygraph","7":"tag-california","8":"tag-oakland-police-department","9":"tag-polygraph-screening","10":"anons"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4944","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=4944"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4950,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4944\/revisions\/4950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}