Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

Ok so I just took the polygaph and I was told it was inconclusive. What does that REALLY mean for my chances at being hired? The examiner told me it was as if I never took one, but some websites have said that it will be treated as a failed poly. Keep in mind that my polygraph was a mind blowing 10 questions long and administered by an outsourced agency and I have no idea what I was inconclusive on... Also I am in the top tier of applicants (or so I've been told)...

Why don't you ask our background investigator or someone else in personnel? Every department is different so I'm afraid any answer you get here will be .............. inconclusive.

Every department is different so I'm afraid any answer you get here will be .............. inconclusive.

Unfortunately this is very true. Call the department, if they've told you you're a "top tier" applicant they may be interested in you enough to find out the low-down on the results.

Well I belive that there is no "low-down" on the results. Here is the story, I was given a 10 min pre poly interview in which we covered....nothing... I mean it was really just 10 min of the lady telling me how awsome the polygraph is and that there is no way that I could lie and get away with it. I was then told to look out of a 15th story window and answer 10 questions.... oh and did I mention that I'm afraid of hights? I almost had a panic attack halfway through the questions... it was so bad that I stopped hearing what she was saying.... After the tenth question was over she was very "interested" in my results i.e she had no idea what just happened. I told her about my fear of hights and then asked her if I could face the wall instead and was asked the same 10 questions. From her tone of voice I did quite well the second time through but do to the first test I was given an inconclusive. Her exact words were "the good news is, you didn't fail from the first test, but the bad news is you didn't pass because of the second test. If you take a pass and fail and combine them you get an inconclusive" Has anyone here EVER heard of somthing like this? Oh and btw this wasn't a police officer giving me the test, it was an outsourced civilan.

Who knows. We had three polygraph operators. One guy you could count on to get inconclusive on well over half of his tests. One rarely got an inconclusive and the the third did maybe 3 out of ten times.

She may have given you that because you failed one and passed the other. It's not much of a science.

Again, call your BI and see what they he/she says. They'll give you answers, all we can do is speculate.

First, STOP, STOP, STOP with the "outside" agency crap. We have gone over this and answered it. To give polys, EVERYONE has to be certified through one of two agencies, a DOD or a civilian and they are the same program, same standards, same length. You keep mentions "outside agency" like that is the reason you would have problem (before you went) and why you failed. It is coming across as you are using that as a crutch and whining about it. It is not an issue at all.

As far as your inclusive, it appears it is your fault. Somebody told you to do something, aka look out a window, and that made you nervous....and you don't address it until after it happened. You should have said something immediately. What she told you is right...both charts have to match. Its no big deal since you did not fail.

Calm down.....relax...take it again with an open mind...and don't worry about it. You will do fine.

Our polygraph operators all belonged to some national organization that had standards. I suspect they all do so like Joe said, who did it is immaterial.

If they want you, they'll probably retest you, but CALL THEM and ask.

I'm not trying to use that it is an outside agency as a "crutch" I'm saying that because I would assume that a police department that is conducting the tests would not settle for an "inconclusive." I have no prior experiance with polygraphs and when I heard "inconclusive" I assumed it was BS for "I have no idead what I'm looking at." Kinda like a half-assed answer, makes me feal as though the job wasn't done right, if this machine can detect lies then why wouldn't they just put me through it over and over until they got an answer? And secondly I can see that there are some strong supporters for the polygraph here lol. I cannot belive that it is MY fault for the inconclusive and not the operators..... I have no idea what is going on, the operator however should be able to see a problem when the chart is all over the place, and ask what is going on. I trusted the operator and when she said "look out the window" I didn't question her until it was to late..... but then again I have no idea how they work so I could be wrong.

And secondly I can see that there are some strong supporters for the polygraph here lol.

Not everyone is. I believe in them for criminal investigations to an extent, but I think they are BS for employment. Others disagree though.

A polygraph only measures your physical responses, breathing, heart rate, etc. over a continuous period of time. The operator looks at the chart to determine your responses at given moments such as when you are listening to and answering questions. The machine is always going to be correct in what it reads, everything else is subjective to some degree. And she was wrong, some people such as sociopaths can lie and pass and some will fail because of other reasons. But most of the time they are reliable. As a general rule, if you lie, the operator will see that and if you tell the truth, you will be okay. But factors like you described will skew the results.

The panic attack you got definitely affected your physical responses to the questions. Yes, you should have told the operator immediately about being uncomfortable looking out the window for the above stated reason. When Joe said it was your fault, it was in that the machine was recording your physical response and it recorded them correctly. The operator had to assess that physical response. Whether you passed, failed or was inconclusive is the opinion of that operator, but if you were panicked she wouldn't be able to determine much. What she told you didn't make sense to me either. Did you ask her what she meant by that? Did you pass the second test?

Have you called the hiring agency yet to see what they say? For the third or fourth time, they are the only ones who can tell you how this will affect you and what you have to do.

I have called the officer who has recieved my polygraph but from what I've been told the whole recruitment office (two officers) is busy with the graduating class of cadets. The reason this is grating on me so much is that I went through the past 5 months of test after test and passed everything... this was the last step and to be given inconclusive is kind of a kick in the nuts. I called the polygraph agency and spoke to the lady who gave me the test and she said that the first test resluts were all over the place due to my fear of hights and the second test I would have passed but I was bouncing my leg slightly throughout every question. So she drew it up to inconclusive.

As suggested try to relax. They don't want to loose a top tier candidate over inconclusive. I am sure they will delve into it further. I hope they don't make you get in a helicopter when your on.

I'm not trying to use that it is an outside agency as a "crutch" I'm saying that because I would assume that a police department that is conducting the tests would not settle for an "inconclusive." I have no prior experience with polygraphs and when I heard "inconclusive" I assumed it was BS for "I have no idea what I'm looking at."
You should have done some basic searching on here as it has been covered. A test can be a pass, showing deceptive traits or inconclusive.



Kinda like a half-assed answer, makes me feal as though the job wasn't done right, if this machine can detect lies then why wouldn't they just put me through it over and over until they got an answer?
The machine is not designed to detect lies. The machine is designed to detect involuntary physiological traits commonly found in those lying, aka sweating, increase in blood pressure, change in breathing, etc...



And secondly I can see that there are some strong supporters for the polygraph here lol. I cannot belive that it is MY fault for the inconclusive and not the operators.....If you knew how the test works you would understand it is your fault. They only ask the questions and read the chart. As a police officer you are going to have to learn to do more more "investigating" by looking up polygraphs on here and second, be more assertive, such as when she originally told you to look out the window, you should have spoke right up.

I do wonder though, if looking out a window of building a few floors up makes you that nervous, what are you going to do if you get called to a roof for a job?

I do wonder though, if looking out a window of building a few floors up makes you that nervous, what are you going to do if you get called to a roof for a job?

That crossed my mind too. I'm not crazy about heights either, that's why I didn't take the fire fighters' exam, but I've never had a problem looking out a window........:rolleyes5:

LOL You guys contradict yourselves quite a bit.... I.E " As a police officer you are going to have to learn to do more "investigating" by looking up polygraphs on here and second, be more assertive, such as when she originally told you to look out the window, you should have spoke right up." First off, I completely agree that I sould have spoken up sooner and next time that will not happen but "do more investigating"???? That is the EXACT opposite of what quite a few of the LEO on this website have said. You see I DID look it up on this site and quite a few other sites and the majority of the time all that was said was relax and stop investigating the polygraph..... Most advise that you do NO research so you don't freak yourself out or make the polygraph examiner think you were looking for CM's.... As for the respond to the roof call..... ok I was in the military and have been on plenty of helos, C130's, OSPRAYS, ect, ect.... I don't like heights but that will not stop me from preforming a job.... The reason that I reacted so strongly while hooked up to the polygraph is becasue the job that I've been fighting for is resting on a machine that "Is designed to detect involuntary physiological traits COMMONLY found in those lying, aka sweating, increase in blood pressure, change in breathing, etc..." or commonly found in those who are looking out a 15th story window..... so the stress of the polygraph itself coupled with the anxiety of looking out a window made my chart all over the place, then what set off the very near panic attack was that she kept saying "interesting" and "are you sure about that" and I knew what was going on.... Also
"They only ask the questions and read the chart" Can you please elaborate on that comment? It seams that you are discrediting the operator or implying that it is all the machine which is conradictive of pretty much everything everyone has told me about the polygraph... Please correct me if I am wrong....

You're over thinking this. An inconclusive means just that....so the department will either adjudicate the issue through the background, re poly, or drop you...or some combination of that. Either way, too late to really do anything about it but relax.

"adjudicate the issue through the background" I heard this being floated around before... can you please explain what exactly that is?