In a major policy shift, candidates for the Philadelphia Police Department will no longer have to pass a lie-detector test to be accepted to the force, according to a directive from Police Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson. 

The order takes effect immediately, affecting a new list of prospective officers who have yet to complete their qualifications for the department. 

"We just have a brand-new list [of candidates], and I've talked to the deputy commissioner of Internal Affairs indicating that I want nobody on that list to be polygraphed," Johnson said in an interview yesterday. 

The commissioner said he made the decision after a review of the policy by a panel that included Fraternal Order of Police president Richard Costello; Maureen Rush, vice president of public safety at the University of Pennsylvania; and city lawyers. 

"What I am trying to do is make our system fair and consistent for everyone," said Johnson, discussing the policy that was first implemented in the late 1970s, several years before the force began reeling from major corruption probes that reached into the highest ranks. 

"I think that there are a lot of applicants who we've lost who would have made outstanding police officers that, because they couldn't pass the polygraph, were rejected," the commissioner said.