60% Connecticut State Police Polygraph Failure Rate!

[George Maschke]

The Connecticut State Police have provided the following statistics in a "Selection Process Update":

As of August 27, 2003, all of the six hundred seventy three (673) candidates scheduled for polygraph examinations have completed it. _Two hundred twenty seven (227) applicants passing the polygraph have proceeded to the background investigation phase of the selection process. _One hundred five (105) polygraph reports have yet to be evaluated.

Excluding the 105 polygraph reports not yet evaluated, 227 out of 568, or 40%, passed. The remaining 341, or 60%, failed!

Note that the polygraph is the fourth step in the Connecticut State Police selection process. Those 60% of applicants who are being branded as liars have all passed a written examination, a physical fitness assessment, and an observational test.

Given that polygraph screening is completely invalid (as confirmed by the National Academy of Sciences in its landmark report, The Polygraph and Lie Detection, it is clear that the CSP is falsely branding large numbers of truthful, qualified applicants as liars and wrongly disqualifying them from employment.

[kelly]

the polygraph is Bullsh#@#!t. If they do a proper background investigation they shouldn't need it more truthful people fail the polygraph then liars who get caught.

[txinvestigator1]

Sounds to me like a bunch of people attempted to be deceitful on the polygraph.

[danah]

george,
the people on this site, that aren't already police officers, most likely want to be police officers. i took a look at your site and saw that it teaches countermeasures. countermeasures=cheating and cheating does not =police officer. i think it is sad that you don't mind having the wrong people become police officers just to sell your book.

your book is as sad as you say the polygraph is. go promote your book somewhere else.

[KrisSAU]

I couldn't agree more. Basically instructing people to lie or deceive is not what an officer is about. It's all hype and scare tactics. Consideration for nervousness, etc are taken into account during these tests...so racking up excuses is a load of crap. Medical conditions, medications, or whatever else should be disclosed prior as well...

but honestly, George, just because someone can't "beat" the machine doesn't make it okay for people to lie, etc. And it's certainly not what LE is about. You failed, you lied, get over it.

[kelly]

if the polygraph is so reliable why is not admissable in court, why is it outlawed in some states all together. all it does is measure your physiological responses (that is what they mean when they say it is 95% accurate. it can tell if your breathing changes with 95% accuracy) it can not tell if your are lying or being deceptive or any of the other crap they feed you anymore than a mood ring can depict your mood. The military even teaches those that need to know to "beat" the machine. the polygraph can be used as one aspect of a background investigation but it shouldn't be used exclusively to eliminate people who have otherwise clear backgrounds. I work at NSA where the polygraph is given often I've taken the test myself 4 times just because of all the different clearances I need to do my job. its a joke so many people who lie about one thing or the other pass it and so many people who tell the truth fail or have to take it over and over until they "produce the right chart". The polygraph is easy to pass if you know how the test works and easy to fail if you dont ..... believe it or not.

[EricTheBald]

The reason there is a polygraph test for so many jobs, not just law enforcement, is because it's an idea that sounds great on paper.

That how most policy gets created.

[danah]

Originally posted by kelly
if the polygraph is so reliable why is not admissable in court, why is it outlawed in some states all together. all it does is measure your physiological responses (that is what they mean when they say it is 95% accurate. it can tell if your breathing changes with 95% accuracy) it can not tell if your are lying or being deceptive or any of the other crap they feed you anymore than a mood ring can depict your mood. The military even teaches those that need to know to "beat" the machine. the polygraph can be used as one aspect of a background investigation but it shouldn't be used exclusively to eliminate people who have otherwise clear backgrounds. I work at NSA where the polygraph is given often I've taken the test myself 4 times just because of all the different clearances I need to do my job. its a joke so many people who lie about one thing or the other pass it and so many people who tell the truth fail or have to take it over and over until they "produce the right chart". The polygraph is easy to pass if you know how the test works and easy to fail if you dont ..... believe it or not.

i think it is a huge coincidence that all the symptoms of lying strike a person at one time. i think there are three:higher blood pressure, sweat on the fingers (?), and breathing. if this was just from nervousness then it would either stay a constant high or a constant low throughout. symptoms wouldn't spark up at different questions unless there is an abnormal situationa pertaining the question.

kelly, do you actually support NOT having a polygraph test in the police application process? i admit to taking steroids when i was about 16. a thorough background investigation would never find that-EVER. you know why? two people know (beside you guys on the board) me and the stranger i got them off of and he lives across the country-i dont' even know his name.

the polygraph is neccessary

[BigGerman]

Danah.........have you ever taken a polygraph exam before?

[kelly]

no using the polygraph is fine but it should not be the end all be all like i said if you want to believe that the machine can detect a lie go right ahead (but just know that that is how the test works) the fact is and anyone even a polygraph administrator will tell you is that its just not true. That is why it can not be used in court it is notoriously unreliable. if you do a proper background check on an individual and find nothing of concern nothing disqualifying then u dont NEED a polygraph. I mean hey if the polygraph is sliced bread then why not just go straight to it why spend all the money doing the background investigation if your not going to trust the concrete results that they yield. By the way as someone posted somewhere else on this board having a "reaction" to one or two questions can disqualify you. Look here it is they ask you questions they know the answer to like is your name ---- do you live at ---- were you born in ---- these are the controls by which your baseline is measured then they ask the relevant questions or the questions they are concerned with like have you ever been arrested blah blah...a normal person not a liar or someone attempting to be deceptive will many times have a different reaction to that question than to what is your name. if your reaction to the arrest question is stronger (which it is likely to be just because of the nature of the question) than your reaction to the control question then that is said to indicate deception. So I said all that to say that you can not determine that someone is lying by physiological responses. Common example: we all know that an accomplished liar (im sure we all know one) will have little or no physiological reaction what so ever and will most likely pass with flying colors while an honest Abe who is scared to death that the lie detector knows all will send the chart through the roof when ever he's asked a relevant question because hes worried about the machine. Has nothing to do with him telling a lie.

[KrisSAU]

This is one of those topics where u can argue until you are blue in the face. Polygraphs are not flawless, but neither are the humans who make them. However, I am for them. They are not perfect, but they do provide valuable information. For the most part, if you don't lie on them you should be fine (notice I said MOST).

[kelly]

k just one more lick just to be sure the horse is actually dead, So you believe that 60% of the people who took the Ct State Polygraph I dont by the way know how many people that is but Im assuming a substantial amount were all liars?

[BigGerman]

The poly for pre-employment is effective because the applicant knows that they will have to face it. This most likely will cause the person that has disqualifyng issues to either quit the process becuase of fear of being caught, lie and maybe get caught, or disclose what a bad boy or girl they have been in their past. As Danah points out there are endless situations where if you did not disclose something.....it could never be discoved....everybody has them.

[kelly]

im assuming that you all have taken the polygraph...you have right?

[slimhawks]

I think one reason the polygraph is used is to see if the applicant is willing to lie in the hiring process for whatever reason they have for being deceptive.
I worked with a guy in the IT industry who would read a job posting and put all the skills they wanted onto his resume. He said "I'll just learn it after I get the job."

I'm not working in LE (i'm a student) yet, I'm just guessing at the motives for using the polygraph.