Could you provide more detail about your polygraph examination? What questions were you asked? Which ones did you believe to be "control" questions? What countermeasures did you employ?

This really concerns me because I have always wanted to be a cop and what is going to happen when I apply to other agencies. Maybe i should have used different counter measures. What do you think?

I often find these posts to be somewhat doubt raising, especially when it is posted by someone who has never posted before.  Could be real or it could just be a pro-poly person trying to throw people off from considering countermeasures.

In the case that this is a real post, then I suggest that you contest the findings of the polygrapher, I am sure that after the test they told you how to do this and appeal it, so that perhaps you can get a retest.  If you indeed did try to pass the test using countermeasures, maybe you should try to take the test without them (this is of course something you should do with another agency and not the one you have already tested for). 

While I have my own personal reservations about polygraphy, I also feel that until something better comes up that it is the only choice LE agencies have to be albe to further screen applicants for things that a Background Investigation will not uncover.

Ultimately, you could try and test with an agency that DOES NOT polygraph.

All three of these are indeed "control" questions.

Did your polygrapher explain to you why he believed you were trying to manipulate the results? Why did he show you the chart? What did he expect you to see in it?

concernedapple wrote on Jan 14^th, 2006 at 1:37am:

concernedapple wrote on Jan 13^th, 2006 at 10:29pm:


Concernedapple,

You did the right thing to deny it to the end because examiners don't really know for sure whether examinees use countermeasures. After a nearly 90 minute intense interrogation, my examiner said to me, "I think you tried to manipulate this test." I didn't have the slightest idea as to what he was talking about. I didn't know countermeasures even existed and as far as I was concerned, only sociopaths were able to beat the polygraph. 

If polygraph examiners could really recognize countermeasures, they would not go around accusing people of using them who have never even heard of them. It's complete nonsense--they are just bluffing, hoping the examinee will fall for their little game and admit to them--only then will they know for sure.