I recently took a polygraph for employment with a police department. I was 100% honest with the detective and after taking it, I was told that I failed. I spoke with a friend of mine's brother who is a police officer and he told me that they tell everyone that they fail. He said that usually people will get DQ'ed for differences in replies for the pre-polygraph interview and the post polygraph interview, rarely for the actual results of the polygraph itself.......is this true?

It is common place to tell applicants they failed trying to see if they will alter their answers?

Any information or help would be greatly appreciated......thanks!!!!

Aspiring Police Officer

Thanks for the reply.....I was told after the post interview that I could retest if asked to. 

Interesting thing is a friend of mine is a cop and he told me that its very common for polygraphers to tell the applicants they failed, in hopes of the applicant admitting to something that he didn't disclose before. Which in my case since I had nothing to hide I had nothing more to tell him. Anyhow, I was hoping you could shed some light on this.