Sgt. Cousins,
I am the web master of
www.stopolygraph.com. Unfortunately, my professional and family demands have not allowed me to comment on the message board, but I believe no void has been felt due to the competent members who routinely respond to the posts.
I felt compelled to respond to your inquiry due to the enormous respect I have for your great country and to share with you my thoughts as a police officer.
I am a police officer, currently working in investigations. I have investigated everything from financial crimes, sex crimes, and most recently a multiple defendant homicide whereupon five people were murdered. I take great pride in my investigations and will not put my name on it unless I can defend it in Court. This has led to not only commendations from prosecutors but also from defense attorneys for my tenacious and fair efforts.
I’m sure during your law enforcement tenure you have used props or ruses during criminal investigations. The ruses could range from telling a defendant that his fingerprints were located at the crime scene or that a hidden camera captured the defendant committing the crime.
Depending on the delivery of the interrogator, coupled with the ignorance of the defendant, the technique can be very effective. To enhance these ruses, often time’s props are introduced. The purpose of a polygraph is a prop to use during a criminal investigation/interrogation to solicit admissions and confessions. To the end that it accounts for an admission or confession it is very effective. HOWEVER; to use the results to make any type of decision is completely reckless and slander. I will explain.
It is slander to use the results because the polygraph doesn’t work. It is common sense. The human body is entirely too complicated for some person to go to polygraph school and completely understand human physiology, emotions, cardiovascular system, breathing, the central nervous system, and how it interrelates with the brain. Even veteran physicians would not attempt such a ridiculous endeavor.
When you pin a “grapher” or “chart roller” down about about why a person reacted, they will fall back on, “something had to cause that reaction.” Gee, how original. It is their responsibility if they are going to conclusively diagnose a person a liar what caused that reaction. If they cannot say for certain what caused that reaction, then they have no business making a diagnosis.
Literally, it is impossible to determine why a person reacts to a question. Could they be lying, maybe. Could they have subconscious reaction or sensitively to the question, maybe? Could it be something in the human body that the person can’t account for, maybe. Could it be that the Secret Service Agent conducting the test just made threatening gestures while yelling at the applicant seconds before hooking him to a polygraph, most likely (as this is standard operating procedure for the Secret Service.)
The accounts of victims who have been innocent and have had their lives tarnished on a wrong diagnosis are many. This leads me to my next area why it is reckless to use the results of a polygraph.
Reckless Part 1:
Whether they admit it or not, most law enforcement will either or clear or focus on a suspect based on the polygraph results. This has led to many serious failures. Innocent people are the subject of intense investigations, while the guilty continue to perpetuate their crimes. Most recently, I was speaking with a fellow detective who was telling me a person cleared by a polygraph test many years ago on child molesting charges was recently arrested and admitted to lying during the polygraph and perpetuating his crimes years after the police cleared him. Untold numbers of victims were subject to this monster because the “polygraph” cleared him and set the police on a different direction.
Reckless Part 2:
I will focus on countermeasures by the sex offender. The sex offender is one of the most sophisticated and computer savvy criminals. They have the ability to search the Internet by typing the word “polygraph” on a search engine and learning effective countermeasures so they can perpetuate their crimes. The polygraph is tool to assist the child molester. Frankly, the polygraph can be one of the best strategic tools for the molestation of children.
Lets say a sex offender must be routinely polygraphed. The sex offender invests about 30 seconds to one minute to locate countermeasures resources on the web. Let’s say he invests another ten minutes to learn counter interrogation tactics. For example, look at the web site
http://www.doc.state.vt.us/sex.htm which gives a detailed outline of the script the interrogator is most likely going to follow.
Now armed with this information, the sex offender is given a polygraph and subsequently he passes the test. The reporting authorities are slapping themselves on the back for a job well done as they have “intimidated” the subject into compliance and can reduce or eliminate other probation tactics such as supervision.
When in reality this polygraph certified sex offender is molesting children. Frankly, based on my advanced training and experience as a police officer, I have no doubt the sexual offender criminal community already has such information posted and is employing such tactics on these allegedly successful programs. Law enforcement applicants are employing countermeasures everyday, so why would sex offenders be any different. There is a saying never under estimate the enemy. Having any faith in polygraph results is essentially handing your opponent the keys to criminal activity.
Please, do your country a favor. Stay away from polygraph and stick with legitimate investigative techniques where you can rest assured that someone you cleared by polygraph will not come back to haunt you.
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British Police officer on a Fulbright Award (Read 8932 times)
