I took a polygraph test before reading "The Lies Behind the Lie Detector" and failed the test.  I believed that telling the truth was all that matter.  I found out that I was gravely mistaken.  Because the test was extremely important (I was being investigated), I decided to seek another test from outside my agency.  I took a CVSA test and passed with flying colors.  I told the truth in both test but I feel that the examiner in the first test was bias by the way he asked the questions.  During the run through of the questions the examiner was going to ask, I told him that I had a problem with one of the questions.  He changed that question but then asked it later in the test.  I have taken test before and remember that the questions usually start out with "Other then what we discuss before, etc"...  This wasn't the case, this examiner just asked straight forward questions.  The second examiner took his time and explained things.

I know that neither test is reliable but my questions is, which test is harder beat.  The second examiner told me that the CVSA was the harder of the two because it's difficult to control your voice.  My first test results could cause me to suffer serious penalities from my department.  The second test result may assist me in winning a law suit

Any advice in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

JPCOP121 wrote on Sep 6^th, 2001 at 2:21am:


JPCOP121

I too had a similar experience. I was found to be "deceptive" and subsequently "failed". When I read The Lie Behind The Lie Detector I also realized that I was victimized because of a lack of knowledge of how a polygraph works. 

There have been other posts by police officers who also were being investigated or testing for another job. When they fail, it is reminiscent of a slap in the face. Most police officers are honest hard-working people who have a great deal of integrity. I hope that your record will speak for itself, if your jacket is clean, then your IAB people can't create bad files(or can they?). You seem to want to cooperate and that is important. You should also check to see if your state allows polygraphs to be given to police officers. 

Good Luck

Fred F.