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First, I wanna start off with a little info about my self before I go into my experience.
I am 27 and have a bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice and I have completed a law Enforcement Academy in my state about 6 months ago. I have no criminal history, not even a parking ticket on my record. I have always wanted to be a Police Officer, even as a small child. I spent my whole life preparing my self to go into Law Enforcement, studying, training in martial arts, keeping my self out of any trouble what so ever.
After applying to several Police Departments and being turn down for interviews and failing written tests, I finally got all the way to the polygraph which is pretty much near the very end of the process for this department.
I was emailed a packet of papers to fill out for the polygraph which had around 150-200 questions about employment and possible criminal history. I filled it out truthfully and brought it to the polygraph examination. I walk up to the window at their office and was told to stand away from the window because of the corona virus. They gave me more papers to fill out (medical history, employment, waver) and I waited for the examiner. He open the door and ask for me to come back with him, telling me that I need to stay some distance away from him because of the virus. He then told me to wash my hands and I did (I washed them like a doctor). I looked back and noticed that he was watching me intensely as I did this. He then told me to walk to his office and have a seat a chair (like one from the waiting room) which was facing kinda diagonal to this desk. He started the pre interview. He told me I had to answer honestly so that he could better read the charts and went over the packet that I turned into him. Asking me about my work history and my education and criminal history etc. He then went down the list asking me to say yes or no to whether or not I have committed any of the offenses. I replayed "no" to everything (which is true). He got to a question about work place theft and ask me if I have ever stolen form work. I replied "no" (which I felt was honest as I couldn't think of taking even the smallest thing with out their knowledge). I had only ever had two jobs.. I was a Martial art teacher for most of my work history and my work history is not very much at all for my age. He replied "you never even taken a pen from work." I said "no, the pens were free." which they were.
After the pre interview I was told to go wait in the waiting room while he typed in the information, but then he changed his mind and told me to have a seat and wait in the other office and to "not touch anything." I did exactly as he asked. After a few minutes went by he called me back into the room and told me to have a seat in the larger chair. He started placing the finger devices, tubes and blood pressure stuff on me (without explaining the devices I was being hook up to and what they do). He then put me through 3 rounds of the polygraph which seemed to have around 10-15 questions each round. I was asked questions like "are you trying to deceive me", "have you ever committed a large crime", "Have you ever sold narcotics", "have you ever committed sexual assault", "have you done anything your family would be ashamed of you about", "have you ever stolen anything over $100". I answered "no" to them all, which is true! I felt my heart beating very hard through the first round because I always get nervous being interviewed even when i do board interviews. I started to relax in the second round as it got boring really fast answering "no" to all the questions. Also something to note that i noticed is it didn't feel like he was waiting very long between questions. There was a slight 5-10 seconds maybe at most after I answered then he would start the next question. In the second round he asked me if "any of the questions so far bothered me". I replied "no", which I felt was true as nothing seemed to pertain to me. He also told me to stop pushing on the device on my fingers and I told him I wasn't. I wasn't even moving my hand and ended up having to extend my fingers slightly the whole time to make sure he wouldn't gripe at me anymore (which was uncomfortable). After the test was over he calmly told me that "I passed everything except the theft and drug categories". Then walked over to start unhooking me. He asked what was on my mind as he was unhooking me and I said "nothing". He then said (still in a clam manner) that something had to be on my mind. I said " nope". He then asked "well have you been around anyone on drugs?" I said "yes, my brother overdosed when I was 22." He went quite for a few seconds. He then asked how long ago that was and started counting it out on his hand. "four years ago" he said as he nodded his head. He then asked was that what was on my mind. I said "that is something that is always in the back of my mind" as I sat back down in the other chair. A few more seconds of silence went by and then I asked "so did I pass or fail? He said that the "results show deception" in the two categories, but that it was ultimately the police departments decision and that he "doesn't make the hiring decisions." We talked for a minute and he ended up telling me when I asked about it, that my brothers death "could have affected the results of the test". I was kind of shocked that he admitted that the test results could be wrong or "affected" yet was saying I was found being deceitful.. He politely walked me out and said to take care.
I know that I wasn't lying and I have nothing to hide as I have never even smoked marijuana or done any drugs nor stolen anything I can even remember.
So right now i'm waiting on the police department to call me or write me back as it has been a few days now. I haven't heard if I was actually removed or this is all a big bluff. Also, the department I am applying for is a college police department and I don't know if the rely on the polygraph like other city police departments.. This is keeping me up at night because i finally got so far and now I feel like I could be removed from the process for telling the truth.. This was also my first polygraph.
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