Federal Spending on Polygraph Equipment in FY 2004

[George W. Maschke]

The Federal Procurement Data System provides on-line access to information about U.S. Government purchase orders. Registration is required, but is free.

A search for records of fiscal year 2004 contracts with the three major manufacturers of polygraph instruments (Axciton, Lafayette, and Stoelting) revealed the following purchases:

Axciton
$32,000 (FBI)
$81,000 (DoD)

Subtotal: $113,000

Lafayette
$15,360 (ATF)
$56,791 (DoD)
$60,276 (DoD)
$4,510 (DoD)
$12,390 (US Army)

Subtotal: $149,327

Stoelting

$3,626 (DoD)
$7,122.50 (DoD)
$59, 785.80 (DoD)
$12,310 (DoD)
$84 (DoD)
$6,412 (DoD)

Subtotal: $89,340.30

Total US Government Purchases from Polygraph Manufacturers in FY 2004:   $351,667.30

Mattel markets a product called a Magic 8-Ball that has about the same validity as a lie detector as does the polygraph. But the Magic 8-Ball has the advantage that, unlike the polygraph, it is not susceptible to countermeasures. With a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $5.99, for the amount paid to polygraph manufacturers in FY 2004, the US Government could have obtained some 58,000 Magic 8-Balls at retail prices, roughly enough for every federal investigator to have his or her very own personal lie detector/truth verifier. No doubt, even more Magic 8-balls could have been obtained with a wholesale discount.

[Bill Crider]

will the feds discontinue this stupid practice of polygraph?


<<shake shake shake>>


"It seems doubtful"