Quote:


Even if it's a malicious lie, it's not slander.

ChrisMcphee33 
What I have been trying to tell you from the beginning is that if you intend to hold a position of public trust in Law Enforcement. You must possess the courage to tell the truth, even when it may cause you trouble, embarrassment or discomfort. 

You think that by playing with a BP monitor you can lie on your polygraph and attempt countermeasures without being caught, well go ahead give it a try. See what happens.   You think that by minimizing your behaviors or by changing definitions you to suit your behaviors will provide sufficient justification for you to pass. YOU ARE WRONG. 

If you think that taking the advice of a guy who bears a grudge because he couldn't pass his own polygraph will help you; you are naive.

Your research is too one-sided. You haven't read the studies that prove polygraph works. You haven't read everything that the NAS said about polygraph. You should probably NOT be making your decisions based on the out of context snippets from that report that you see repeated by Mr. Mashke and his cheerleaders. 

What you don't realize is that you have allowed them to place you in a win/win construct for them. If you get lucky and pass your polygraph, you will return to this site and sing their praises. If you fail they will use you as just another example of the "Evil Polygraph Conspiracy" They win either way, but either way YOU LOSE. 

The founder of this site has failed so far in causing any significant changes in polygraph laws or policies, because he is wrong.   I believe he has chosen instead to attack polygraph with a feeble little guerilla action by convincing the courageous honest people that are needed in government service to become dishonest liars. Thus he obtains the revenge he thinks he is owed because the government decided he was unsuitable for the service he desired to perform.

If you lie on that exam or try to cheat, whether you pass or fail, you will not be fit to polish a real cop’s boots. You will fall way short in the Honesty, Integrity, and Courage Departments. Why don’t you just try to be the honest person your prospective employers are looking for?

From your posts it certainly appears that there is a lot about the subject of polygraph you don't know.

In fact if the old adage;” What you DON'T know Can't hurt you" ever turns out to be true, IMHO you just might be invincible.


Sancho Panza

SanchoPanza, I have nothing major to hide, and maybe if I put all the cards on the table I would pass this the test....but I think the risk is higher in trusting a process where 3/4 people fail. I got this info first hand from a recruiter. I bet 95% of these people knew nothing about countermeasures....are they all liars? Are the people who over and over agin come to this and other sites who say "why did I fail, I told the truth!" really lie? This process is flawed...I don't say this because I have spent years researching documented facts...thats inpossible becasue that kind of thing can't be documented...I say this because of first hand accounts from real people. You say I am being too one-sided but you are being very one-sided because you never once admitted that many trurthfull people are branded as liars. 

I have read the NAS report on the polygraph and pasted a couple of statements below:

"Reliability across examinees is another important component of overall test reliability. For example, two examinees may have engaged in the same behaviors and may give the same answers to the same test questions, but due to different interpretations of a question, may have differing beliefs about the truthfulness of their responses and so produce different polygraph readings."

"special populations that may be likely to show false negative results (e.g., people who want to deceive the examiner and who use countermeasures to try to “beat” the test); and populations that may be likely to show false positive results (e.g., truthful people who are highly anxious about the test). The same is true for test situations."

From executive summary:
"CONCLUSION: Polygraph testing yields an unacceptable choice for DOE employee security screening between too many loyal employees falsely judged deceptive and too many major security threats left undetected. Its accuracy in distinguishing actual or potential security violators from innocent test takers is insufficient to justify reliance on its use in employee security screening in federal agencies."

chrismcphee33  you say you have nothing to hide but you plan to lie and cheat anyway. Is that the behavior of someone YOU would trust? If that is a representative sample of applicant behavior in Canada, I can ony respond with God Bless America.

See my response to Sergeant regarding another explanation why so many recruits might fail the test. I think the failure rate you cite is inaccurate and I would encourage any of the polygraphers here who do pre-emloyment tests to cite their applicant polygraph failure rates. I'm guessing it is nowhere near 75%

You must remember that the NAS study is over five years old not and subsequently has not been able to address the most recent research. Maybe someday they will repeat the study and have the opportunity to evaluate the research published since their finding as well as the research currently under way. 

You must also recognize that the NAS DID NOT CONDUCT ANY RESEARCH INTO THE ACCURACY AND VALIDITY OF POLYGRAPH. They simply performed an academic review of selected published research. They did not invite the polygraph community to present whatever evidence good or bad concerning polygraph. 

Part of the NAS study that said specific-incident polygraph tests can discriminate lying from truth telling at rates well above chance, though well below perfection. 

As to your comments regarding the NAS study you should really check your comment about screening exams.

Your quote pertains to espionage screening NOT pre employment examinations. The NAS study DID NOT conclude that the results of pre employment examinations were inaccurate. If you read the study you will see that NAS had a problem with the inference that past behavior was an accurate predictor of future behavior. If this is so, please explain why Mr. Mashke spends so much time talking about his education, experience and background making him the ideal applicant absent his failed polygraph. If you accept the premise that past behavior is not a reliable predictor of future behavior or performance, then we might as well do away with job applications all together and just hire whoever walks in the door first. 

If you want to talk about their conclusions concerning problems with espionage screening tests being subject to false positives you must recognize that Any SCREENING test in ANY scientific discipline has an unacceptable false positive rate. That is why they are called screening tests. A positive result on a screening test just indicates the need for more specific testing. If you will read a similar NAS study of DNA research you will see that they also criticised that research for failing to adequately address error rate. 

While the NAS study did point out the need for improved research, and offer significant suggestions as to how that research should be conducted. I don't see it as the scathing indictment of polygraph it has been represented here to be. 

Sancho Panza

I just reviewed my stats for the past two months on pre-employment exams.  I had a 30% failure rate.  90% of the deception calls were verified with admissions - 2 were currently using drugs and one will end up with federal time because of the crimes he has committed.  1 DI call was hired after the BI investigated the issue further.  I had 5 no-shows and I also had 5 individuals trying to manipulate the polygraph and was disqualified - one would not admit to using the CM's probably because of the advice on this site. (I included them in the DI %).  Again, this is only on pre-employment exams.


Like Yankeedog stated, I never brag about the failure rate to anyone.  I have vented on this site about catching another person using CM's as to notify everyone CM's are detectable and they will ruin an honest persons chances of employment with a LE agency.   If you lie to cover up illegal/deviant behaviors I don't care if you use CM's as you will be caught and disqualified.

As I and others have stated numerous times, Polygraph is not 100% accurate; however, it is a great tool to assist the BI or other entities.   

I agree with the content of chrismcphee33's last post.

For the polygraph to work, the subject must have the correct psychological set in place.  Otherwise, the correct psychophysiological reaction won't be produced.  If a coworker standing in front of a soda machine asks you for money, the changes to your pulse, breathing, and sweat glands will be much different than if a big burly guy in a dark alley asks if you have any money; in the one case the question presents no threat, in the other all but the most foolhardy would be quite alarmed at the query.

P.S. There's nothing in Revelation (not Revalations--the title is singular), or the rest of the Bible, for that matter, about Christians being naked when going to heaven; Barry is correct on that point and Jesper Paten is mistaken.  Insofar as sartorial matters are concerned, all of the good guys in the book are clothed in white robes (Rev. 7:9, etc).