{"id":555,"date":"2011-03-02T08:22:39","date_gmt":"2011-03-02T12:22:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/?p=555"},"modified":"2011-03-02T08:35:14","modified_gmt":"2011-03-02T12:35:14","slug":"philadelphia-police-department-to-re-institute-pre-employment-polygraph-screening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/2011\/03\/02\/philadelphia-police-department-to-re-institute-pre-employment-polygraph-screening\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia Police Department to Re-Institute Pre-Employment Polygraph Screening"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/a>
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WTFX Fox 29 Philadelphia\u00a0reports<\/a> that beginning this spring, Philadelphia Police Department applicants will be subjected to polygraph screening:<\/p>\n

In the past two years we’ve seen a lot of Philadelphia police officers fired and criminally charged for cases of theft, assault, and drug dealer shake-downs.<\/p>\n

So now, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey is turning to an old tool to weed out potential bad apples.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Ramsey confirmed to Fox 29 that starting this spring, all recruits headed for training at the police academy’s next class will undergo a lie detector or polygraph test.<\/p>\n

Ramsey says polygraph tests will be administer [sic] to the 125 candidates for the next police recruit class in addition to the physical, psychological and written tests.<\/p>\n

Ramsey has already upped the age limit to 21, and he now will require three years of driving experience and 60 college credits for recruits.<\/p>\n

He acknowledges with more that 20 cops fired or arrested in the past two years, he’s looking for ways to improve the caliber of cops that join the department.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia police used to undergo polygraph tests years ago, but the practice was halted back in 2003 by Commissioner Sylvester Johnson.<\/p>\n

Ramsey will hire a private firm to conduct the tests. The cost of the tests is about $150 per recruit.<\/p>\n

Polyrapgh [sic] tests are not admissible in court, and there are clearly lots of critics of lie detector tests.<\/p>\n

Ramsey believes the psychological test, the polygraph test and background checks that will now be done by internal affairs detectives will give the department advanced indicators that a particular candidate my not be fit to join the ranks.<\/p>\n

He says he committed to cleaning up the department.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n

As of the time of this post, the Philadelphia Police Department’s Hiring Process<\/a> page has not been updated to reflect the new polygraph requirement.<\/p>\n

While the polygraph requirement should provide a nice cash flow to the as-yet-un-named company that is awarded the contract to screen applicants, it won’t necessarily result in a cleaner police department. Polygraph “testing” has no scientific basis<\/a>. Because it is inherently biased against the truthful<\/a>, and yet easily passed through the use of simple countermeasures<\/a> that anyone can learn, the new polygraph requirement could have the unintended consequence of screening out the most honest and conscientious applicants while allowing the dishonest to pass through.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
FOP Lodge #5 President John McNesby<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A question for Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey<\/a> and Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #5<\/a> president John McNesby<\/a>, who according to Fox 29 favors the polygraph requirement and says it “is a useful tool to weed out potential problem officers for the future”: If polygraphs are so great, why limit them to new recruits?<\/strong> After all, it’s seasoned officers who have been having corruption problems. So why not enact mandatory periodic polygraph screening for all<\/strong> Philadelphia P.D. officers?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WTFX Fox 29 Philadelphia\u00a0reports that beginning this spring, Philadelphia Police Department applicants will be subjected to polygraph screening: In the past two years we’ve seen a lot of Philadelphia police officers fired and criminally charged for cases of theft, assault, and drug dealer shake-downs. So now, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey is turning to an …<\/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":[119,118,70],"class_list":{"0":"post-555","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-polygraph","7":"tag-philadelphia","8":"tag-philadelphia-police-department","9":"tag-polygraph-screening","10":"anons"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555","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=555"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":562,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555\/revisions\/562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}