Lie detector tests

Sure, but they don't detect lies, they just fake people into admitting things they wouldn't otherwise.

For many people, you could attach a few wires to their fingertips, run the wires to a box with lots of lights and buzzers, tell them it will alert you to when they lie, and then just watch the carnage. 

Thanks to CSI, alot of people think the police have magical investigative powers.....it can be pretty funny.

I'm a volunteer with our Sheriff's department and I had to take a "stress analysis" test. It isn't a traditional lie detector test, but a different form that they say most departments use. Take that for what it's worth. I told them absolutely everything in the pretest interview and it said I l was lying about two things I have never done in my life. I mean I have done plenty, I thought it was cool, I told them everything, and I was not nervous at all... but it still said I was being deceitful. Go figure.

It was interesting.... there was a very lengthy written interview. You basically had to tell them everything you did since birth. Then they did a one on one and went over the written stuff. The point was to tell them everything and get it in the open. They never asked point blank questions... during the test, they would say, "other than what we already have discussed, have you done this"... they did a test first because they said most people fail because they are nervous, then once you go through it and know how it goes, you relax and do it again. Interesting, but I failed, and I was pissed. I basically confessed everything I did and it said I lied on something I was not lying on and that was final and I had no recourse.

The only reason I am a volunteer now is because after a couple of years they stop using that process for volunteers. They still use it for employees. I do not know how it is different than a "lie detector" test and I don't know if they use it for suspects.

That's it. So do you use it on suspects?

One of the great scenes from The Wire---"hook" a kid suspect up to the copier...bam confession!!

And yes they are still used in this area for investigative purposes...

I had one when I applied for a certain government agency with a 3 letter acronym.  Very stressful, even when you are telling the truth.  Not at all like you see on TV.  You cannot turn your head, move, speak other than to answer yes or no.  Nose itches? Tough.  Don't scratch unless you want to start all over.

I was in the chair for almost 2 hours with a 10 min break.

It does not necessarily detect lies, only your reaction to the question, which can be more telling that the truth sometimes.

They're used around here by the police.  I know a guy who was on probation and as part of his probation he had to take a lie detector test.  They asked him if he had drank anything while on probation (one of his conditions) and he said no.  The guy really started lighting into him about how the machine told him he was lying and he needed to start telling the truth.  He spent almost 30 minutes in a very high pressure situation with a lot of people yelling at him and he was really scared.

He went to see his probation officer the following week and just knew he was going to get hammered.  His PO told him that he passed the exam with flying colors.  wtf was an under statement.

So the moral of the story as stated before is that lie detector tests are nothing more than a mechanism to get you to fess up to stuff.  The lie detector test is not admissible in court but what you say during the test IS admissible.

Almost 2 hours? Jeez ... my first one was around 4 hours, my second just over 3.

And you bring up a good point - it's *so* very different from tv.. you're sitting in this massive chair with your arms out in front of you, and you can't move a muscle - no turning or shaking of the head, no scratching, no movement whatsoever. You're also sitting on a sensor, so any anal contractions are recorded (I had to fart during my second one - I just told the Detective, he said go ahead and marked the spot on the computer, lol). And it's yes or no answers only. Anything else sends you straight back to Go.

These tests are not done for the results on the tape - they are done to see how well you hold up or how quickly you crack under pressure, and how you handle yourself under said pressure. These guys are highly trained interrogators - it is their job to suss you out. Your reactions say a lot about how you'll conduct yourself once on the job (from a pre-employment perspective).

x3. No way a defense attorney would ever advise taking one. I've always thought that crime dramas have educated criminals how important it is to have an attorney. I love it when the cops say "He's lawyered up!"

4? Dear lord....

The interviewer during mine turned off the machine at one point and told me he was getting a possible "suspect" reading on one of the questions (that I was answering truthfully but made me uncomfortable).  He reminded me that I should answer truthfully no matter what and it would not be held against me. 

His actual quote: "We have murderers and rapists working for us.  As long as we know what you've done it's not an issue."

They just wanted to know everything so that I could not be blackmailed.  The whole process was a total mind-screw...

Made me NOT want to work for this agency...

I used to work with a guy who was retired from the Baltimore Police Department and he used the copier lie detector test on me when I was 18yrs old lol. He had the BPD polygraph book out and everything. I remember watching that episode of the wire and thinkin g"OMG, I had that done to me". Apparently, that was used back in the day during some investigations. At my department, we use Poly's for employment purposes and for investigative purposes if need be.

Depends on what sort of position you are applying for but in many high security level positions anything goes including sexual history, orientation, fetishes, drug use, your attitudes towards specific racial/sexual/religious groups, criminal background, ties to known "terrorist" organizations (and then can extend these questions to ask these same things about your family and friends).

Did it have to be on a farm?