Polygraph examinee's declaration of rights (rough draft).  I will provide specific examples of violations of some these rights as time allows.  These are written specifically with testing associated with obtaining security clearances in mind, but may be relevant to other situations as well.

1.  The polygrapher shall not claim that the polygraph machine detects lies, since it is widely known that the polygraph machine does not detect lies.   

2.  The polygrapher shall not claim that the polygraph machine detects the truth, since it is widely known that the polygraph machine does not detect the truth.

3.  The polygrapher shall not state that the examinee is lying or telling the truth based on the results of the polygraph test.  He shall only state that the examinee did or did not pass the polygraph test.

4.  Should the examinee mention others that he has known and respected that have failed the polygraph test, the polygrapher shall admit the possibility that those people were telling the truth even though though they failed the test, rather than insisting upon their guilt.

5.  Should the examinee mention concerns he has over events that happened in his previous tests, the polygrapher shall not dismiss these concerns, but rather discuss them with the examinee.  If in the course of the discussing the examinee's previous exams the polygrapher believes there were problems with the way the previous exams were conducted, the examiner should provide a signed statement to that effect.

6.  The polygrapher shall not tell the examinee that he must pass a polygraph test in order to obtain a clearance unless he can provide clear written documentation to that effect.

7.  The polygrapher will not reprimand the examinee for pointing out inconsistencies with what the polygrapher has said, or inconsistencies with what previous polygraphers have said.  Instead, the polygrapher shall welcome the chance to clarify any of his earlier statements.  If it becomes apparent that the polygrapher has lied or mispoken, he shall readily admit this.

8. Should the examinee fail the polygraph test, the polygrapher shall not suggest that it was entirely the examine's fault.  Rather, the polygrapher shall admit that it is possible to fail a polygraph test through no fault of the examinee.

9. The polygrapher shall never swear at the examinee or make any obscene gestures.

10.  The polygrapher shall not disclose information about what another examinee said during a polygraph exam if information is also given that would make it possible to identify the other examinee's identity.

11.  At the conclussion of the polygraph exam, the polygrapher shall encourage the examinee to always be truthful in his career even though the examinee will probably be lied to repeatedly during the clearance process.  The polygrapher shall encourage the examinee to seek out and use the best technology available to protect our country, even though technology that was known to be inadequate nearly a century ago was used in the examinee's clearance process.

12.  If passing only a portion of the test will be more harmful to the examinee than failing all of it, the polygrapher shall provide written documentation of this prior to the start of the examination.

13.  The polygrapher shall not my any claim that the examinee cannot discuss anything that was said or happened during the exam unless he gives the examinee written evidence that it is not legal for the examinee to do so.

14.  If an examinee claims any or all of the rights stated in this document and the polygrapher objects to any of them, the polygrapher shall not attack the examinee who claims these rights or this document's author, but shall instead provide well reasoned arguments that the examinee can record so that they may be considered for revising this declaration of rights.

Boston wrote on Mar 6^th, 2006 at 9:22pm:


Boston,

Which ones do you think are unreasonable, and more importantly - why?

retcopper wrote on Mar 7^th, 2006 at 4:15pm:


And how many confessions do you think you would get from child molesters if you instituted such a policy?  Or do you want to castrate them on the results of the test alone?

Can anyone answer the question I posed to Boston without resorting to calls for human castration?