A company called the Baker Group in Cape Canaveral, Florida, is marketing "Digital Voice Stress Analyzer" (DVSA) software that, it claims, "is far superior to outdated 'lie detection' systems such as CVSA, LANTERN, TRUSTER, and POLYGRAPH":
http://www.bakerdvsa.com/ Baker Group managing director Dr. E. Gary Baker, Ph.D. "holds earned degrees of Master of Arts in Religious Counseling and Doctor of Philosophy in Theocentric Business and Ethics from American College of Metaphysical Theology, a distance learning, religious non-profit organization and a non-secular school":
http://www.bakerdvsa.com/management.htm It is surprising that Mr. Baker is not embarrased to boast of such an educational background. The
American College of Metaphysical Theology is an unaccredited diploma mill that offers B.A., M.A., and "Ph.D." degrees for $149, $209, and $249, respectively.
Such shady credentials have apparently not stopped Mr. Baker from achieving some success in marketing his DVSA software and training to law enforcement agencies, according to
an article in today's (18 May 2005) Bellevue, Illinois
Press Democrat: Quote:ILLINOIS STYLE: Some police now prefer newer lie-detection system
ALLISON L. SMITH
Associated Press
ALGONQUIN, Ill. - Local police are standing by an alternative tool for lie detection that they say seems to be reliable.
"I'm not saying it's infallible," Algonquin police Detective Sgt. Doug Lamz said. "But anecdotally, I haven't seen it be wrong yet."
Proponents say that voice-stress analysis is simpler, more portable, and less expensive than a polygraph machine. It uses a laptop computer and a microphone to monitor voice "micro-tremors" during suspect interviews, taking into account nervousness, stimulants and other factors.
But neither polygraph or voice-stress tests are admissible in Illinois courts, largely because of questions of scientific reliability.
In January, Lake in the Hills police became the first department in Illinois to use the voice-stress analysis software and testing method from The Baker Group.
The Florida company is one of two manufacturers to supply and train Illinois law-enforcement agencies.
Lake in the Hills police Sgt. David Brey said that although the tool was valuable, especially in helping rule out suspects, test results were never the sole factor in any investigation.
"It aids in the direction of an investigation," he said. "It's just another tool to help gauge whether someone is being honest with us. But it does not figure into pressing charges."
The technology can be used quickly and doesn't require a department to retain a polygrapher.
"It could take a month to get a polygrapher," he said. "But with VSA, I can do it right here, right now."
Voice stress analysis technology still is in the proving stage for Illinois police officers and sheriff's deputies. The state General Assembly approved it for use about a year ago, making Illinois one of the last states to adopt the 30-year-old technology.
In the past few months, at least 27 law-enforcement agencies in Illinois have been trained to use voice stress analysis, 13 of those through The Baker Group.
In McHenry and northern Kane counties, participating agencies include Algonquin, Crystal Lake, Johnsburg, Lake in the Hills, McHenry, Spring Grove, and the McHenry County sheriff's department.
The Baker Group donated the software to those agencies, which each spent about $1,200 an officer for 40 hours of classroom training and 10 hours of home study, company founder Dr. Gary Baker said. Under state law, the officers must retrain annually.
Proponents of polygraphs and voice-stress analysis cite scores of studies to support the validity, and sometimes superiority, of their method.
Dan Sosnowski is a polygraph examiner on the board of directors of the American Polygraph Association, which has worked to discredit voice-stress analysis. He said a polygraph was more reliable because it measured several physiological functions to determine truthfulness, but the competing tool measures only voice.
And, he said, polygraph examiners go through 10 times the training that voice stress analyzers do.
"Police who use (voice-stress analysis) want to take the cheap and fast route," he said.
But Lamz said that just because the voice-stress analyzers are relatively inexpensive and easy to operate does not mean they are inferior to the polygraph.
"I don't think one piece of equipment is better than the other," he said. "It comes down to the operator. You can't beat the machine. You can beat the operator. It boils down to training and experience."
The Baker Group may also have found a customer in the U.S. Government or its security contractors. The Baker Group's training schedule for 2005 indicates that three classes were to have been taught in Baghdad, Iraq during the first half of the year:
http://www.bakerdvsa.com/training.htm Scary stuff.
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Baker Digital Voice Stress Analyzer (DVSA) (Read 27798 times)
