Polygraph

[MikeG]

If someone offers you "advice" on how to "beat the box", walk away. If you listen to that advice, don't try it. It is deception, or attempting to cheat. Suggest you mention hearing/listening to any such "advice" to the examiner before the exam, because holding it back will show up as clearly as driving wrong way on a freeway.

You will review every question that the examiner will ask before and during the exam.

Do what is expected, no head games, you will be fine.

Exactly. This is a stress test. Each question/answer is supposed to trigger a stress response. You probably have already answered most of the questions anyway. Be honest and the normal stress and anxiety is filtered out.

[MikeG]

Here's an actual examination video of a local RP poster being evaluated by a polygraph after a local shooting. He passed and was no longer a suspect.

[mobrien316]

I am in the very last phase of a hiring process and I still have to take the polygraph. When I read posts like yours it makes me even more freaked out. what if I fail and they think im a crack head?

I am also wondering about the stuff they already know about. I told them everything I have ever done. What if they ask me if I have done a certain thing and I say yes, but the machine says im lying and they think I am making up stuff that I did wrong. Wow, now I do sound like a crack head....

Just go in there with your head up, tell the truth, and whatever happens happens.

After I failed a couple I tried to just look at it as another oral interview. If the person(s) doing the interview liked me I'd get hired, if they didn't I wouldn't. Either way, the only thing I could do is tell the truth and be myself.

[marinepilot]

S.E.R.E. School...Good times...but not really!

Yes, but were you the SRO (Senior Ranking Officer) of your S.E.R.E. class, as I was?? WOW!! What an enhancement!! LOL I took so many beatings, when I messed up, when any of my American service members messed up, etc.

Great experience tho, wouldn't trade it for the world.

[CincyCop]

Yes, but were you the SRO (Senior Ranking Officer) of your S.E.R.E. class, as I was?? WOW!! What an enhancement!! LOL I took so many beatings, when I messed up, when any of my American service members messed up, etc.

Great experience tho, wouldn't trade it for the world.

I was lucky and was right in the middle of the pack as an Enzyme (Ensign/O-1)...so I didn't get beat on too badly. I felt sorry for the E-2/E-3 and O-3/O-4 types that were going through. Did you get the waterboard?

[viperphi]

Polygraphs are skurry. They are supposed to be. It's natural to feel some anxiety because it's a machine and someone's analysis of it's output that determines your fate. I've worked for two departments and it was skurry even the second time when I was already sworn.

[Adrenolize]

Polygraphs are skurry. They are supposed to be. It's natural to feel some anxiety because it's a machine and someone's analysis of it's output that determines your fate. I've worked for two departments and it was skurry even the second time when I was already sworn.

^^ +1

I've been through a number of polygraphs. For employment and otherwise. They still freak me out. It isn't the truthfulness of my answers (I have nothing to hide), but it is that guy giving the test. I have run into enough idiots in the world to wonder if Natural Selection still applies as a law. Add that with the fact that Murphy's Law was created with me in mind and I start calculating my odds....why is he looking at me like that?!?!?

AND...I just found out that I am going to be doing one soon as my app rolls along. I'd rather go through 10 Oral Boards.

[mobrien316]

Just like any other profession, police work has its share of idiots, lazy bums, and pissed off malcontents. Every cop who read that just now easily thought of one example each from their department.

The polygraph is nothing more than an expensive prop used by the person who is going to interrogate you. If he or she is a skilled and ethical interviewer they are likely to come to the correct conclusion about whether you are lying or being truthful. If they are an idiot they are just as likely to mess it up and take a wild guess. If they are a lazy bum they are not going to bother to go through all the work that goes into a good interview and are going to wind up taking a wild guess. If they are a pissed off malcontent they are going to take it out on you if you do anything to annoy them.

The conclusion that results from a polygraph exam is nothing more than the opinion of the examiner. There is no legitimate "science" behind the measurements of physiological responses during an interrogation. However, many people, including many police administrators, believe a failed polygraph equals a deceptive subject, and a passed polygraph equals a truthful subject.

For pre-employment screening the polygraph should only be used an an interrogation intimidator. If the applicant gets scared by the polygraph and admits to something of a disqualifying nature, great. If there is no disqualifying admission there should be no "result" offered by the examiner that determines if the applicant moves forward or is dropped from the hiring process.

[viperphi]

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!!!! It's real and if you lie, they will know and you will go to jail for 90 days and no one will like you any more.

[retdetsgt]

Polygraphs are skurry. They are supposed to be. It's natural to feel some anxiety because it's a machine and someone's analysis of it's output that determines your fate. I've worked for two departments and it was skurry even the second time when I was already sworn.

They're a great tool for criminal investigation because there are no real consequences to the person if they fail. There are consequences for job applicants who don't pass.

I've cleared suspects who flunked it horribly and I have more than a few people serving life or otherwise long prison sentences who passed it with flying colors. I've used it a few hundred times in criminal investigations and it's great to open up a "conversation". Beyond that, the science behind it is weak. A sociopath can pass one hands down every time. You can ask them if the sky is green, they can answer yes and appear truthful. Using it to hire doesn't filter them out, in fact it makes them seem to be fine candidates.

The polygraph is horribly abused by some depts., the feds in particular. When my brother was an Army major, he was subjected to one over a security breach. The operator was an idiot and instead of asking only a few questions, they tried to do a full interrogation of him, periodically looking at the chart and accusing him of lying. He finally ripped off the stuff and told them to go to hell and walked out.

Having utilized it so many time, I would never take one for any reason that involved consequences if I failed, especially employment.

[GoDirectly2Jail]

Having utilized it so many time, I would never take one for any reason that involved consequences if I failed, especially employment.

So to be devil's advocate, if you are a young buck coming up, and your dream is to be an officer with X department, and X department uses polygraph as a part of their hiring process, then what?

[MikeG]

Having utilized it so many time, I would never take one for any reason that involved consequences if I failed, especially employment.

For LE employment in AZ, polygraph examination is required. However, "passing" or "failing" is subjective I believe to the BI. Basically, you answer a pre-exam, you are examined, you answer a post exam. The answers, responses and polygraph are interpreted and compared and reported to BI who decides if you "pass".

Ideally, the sociopath is caught at the MMPI portion and deception is caught at the polygraph.

I don't think polygraph results stay with a candidate the same way their answers to questions stay with them. I've not heard of a department that DQ'd someone because of a previous departments polygraph result. But they will DQ if the answers change (i.e. they lied through their own admission). And departments compare answers on applications as well.

[stephan3838]

Damn Snow, now I have to wait untill Saturday to do my poly.