I'm glad I found this site - I've been stewing over my two failed polygraphs from earlier this month.

I took my polygraph with the hope of being employed at San Diego PD
First off, it was freezing in the room - I had a hard time not shivering especially since we had to show up in a short sleeve shirt.
We came in a group of 3 and they handed us these booklets with questions which we were instructed to read over.
Some of them were familiar - they were similar or the same questions we'd already filled out in our questionairres which we gave our background investigators.
Other questions were new and they got me even more nervous.  I felt like: well I've done things like download music off the internet and they didn't ask me that before.
As soon as I got in the room, I noticed things were different.
There were cameras on me - one was obvious - it was on his desk like a webcam.
The other was in one of those black bubbles in the ceiling.  It was extremely cold in his office as well.
He started off telling stories about how he'd done bad things in his past and he still got hired.  He said he trusts everyone in the department because he knows they all tell the truth because they've all passed a polygraph in order to get hired.
He also explained he was not interested in my answers to any of the questions.  He was simply there to see if I was trying to deceive him.

Then he said he wanted to go through an interview and 'agree' on questions on the polygraph.  He said he should be asking questions that have no emotional attachment to me so there should be zero reaction on his instruments unless I am lying.
We went through questions and I gave some admissions - INCLUDING things that I'd thought of in my last polygraph like about leaving on vacation early.  I told him everything I could think of.
He phrased the questions so they excluded these things I told him.

He had me sign a waiver at this point but for the life of me, I don't remember what it said.  I think it said something to the effect of the results of the polygraph I agree they won't be releasable to me.
Then we had to 'calibrate' the machine where he told me that he wanted me to get comfortable with his machine and that he wanted to make sure I would react when I deliberately told a lie.
So he had me write a number on a piece of paper inside a little circle but not tell him what the number was.
We went through the number routine and he said: you picked the number 7 - which I had.
He showed me the charts which if i had to interpret, it showed me spiking right before he asked me any question but one questions was slightly higher than the last.  I guess that equated to the number 7?

Then I took the test

The test started off with an irrelvant question about my name or address.
It was followed by: do you intend to answer all my questions truthfully?
There were 7 or so questions 
The set ended with: do you believe that I will ask you a question we haven't reviewed?
Then I could hear him let the air out of the cuff but I had to sit there staring at the wall for a while

We'd pause and go over the next set of questions - occasionally I'd think of something and tell him

For instance, he asked: "Have you ever lied to a loved one?"
I said: "No...wait yes...I can think of times I've lied to my parents"
Him: "Tell me about that"
Me: "Well a few times I'd skip school and lie to my parents about where I was"
Him: "Ok...besides what you've told me, have you ever lied to a loved one?"

Then we'd blow up the air cuff and off we'd go.
When we got to the loved one question, I thought of another instance in which I lied.  It made me extremely nervous for the whole set.
He said that I had problems with the questions and so we re-did the whole set.
During the first question where he asked if I intended to be truthful, all I could think of was the instance in which I lied to the parents but hadn't yet mentioned.

There were about 4 or 5 sets total.  At the end he said that I'd had a reaction to a question-
The series of questions involved drug use and there were
Have you had any drug use in the last hour? last day? last week? last month? last year? etc etc last 9 years?
Well 5 years ago I had a traumatic experience in my life.  I explained that to him that it caused me to have anxiety whenever anyone mentioned 2002.
He indicated that his instruments could see beyond that when he rearranged the question but it was still indicating a reaction.

He told me a story of how a girl failed a polygraph and cost herself employment there because she did not admit to stealing a pack of post it notes.
He told me that he wouldn't tell anyone if I'd used drugs but that I needed to be completely honest with him.

I said I was being honest and I couldn't think of anything that might be causing the reaction in addition to what I'd already told him.

At this point he got mean with me and told him that I obviously was not being completely truthful.  He said he would check with his boss to review the charts and 'give me the benefit of the doubt'.
He told me to leave his office and go outside of the building for 5 minutes.  If I left for good, he'd know that I was lying.  If I came back, that I'd need to add anything that would explain the reaction.

I left and sat in the office - he saw me in the office and told me to get out.  That I had to go down 5 flights and physically exit the building for 5 minutes.
I did and I came back.


Here's the part where I feel particularly manipulated:
When I came back in he told me to come over to his screen.  He had 'my charts' on the screen.  I have no idea if these were actually me.  And he had some of my reactions arranged on the screen.

He 'showed' me where I had a reaction to question R24 or something like that.  He also showed me a reaction to another question which he said because I reacted more on R24, that I was being deceptive and I owed him an explanation.  He said once he failed me, my supposed deception went from being a bump in the road on the way to employment to a major roadblock and I should just tell him what I was trying to hide.

I said I had no idea why it was doing that.  That I was being honest.  I said:
"I will not make up some explanation just to get a job with your department"

He gave me his card and said that I should call him that day to tell him what it was I didn't feel comfortable telling him right then.  I handed his card back and said: I don't have anything else to tell you so I won't need your card.

He wouldn't say anything at that point besides to go see my background investigator downstairs.

Somehow my background investigator and the Captain of Backgrounds arranged for me to have another test after the weekend.  This was going to be with their 'best polygrapher'

The test that time was in the same department so the environment was still cold.  The polygrapher was much more business-like.  He tried to get me to admit that I'd been concealing something which I did not.

He did not show me any of my charts and simply said at the end of the test
"Sarah, you're still not passing"
He once again tried to get me to admit something and gave me his card 'in case i thought of anything'

I met with the Captain of Backgrounds who said he was disappointed since I was such a promising candidate.  
AND THAT WAS IT!
I'm a promising candidate who was telling the truth who they are going to lose because of their stupid polygraph requirement??

I just wish I had read this website before I'd taken the tests.
I was manipulated and made to feel like a bad human being because I failed those polygraphs.
I told those 2 polygraphers the truth - every little transgression and every major embarrassing moment in my life - so they could tell me that I'm a liar?