ow to test on. Each morning they would bring ten soldiers over to the school. There were ten students in my class, so we each had a person to conduct a test on. They would take two or three of the ten soldiers and create a “mock” crime for them to have committed. This included things like a robbery, theft, etc. It was our job as students to conductOver my thirty years in the polygraph business I’ve heard many negative comments about its effectiveness and accuracy. And it always seems that these comments always come from people who have absolutely no direct knowledge of polygraph and how it works. This negativity comes from congressmen and senators, judges and state legislators and many other folks who have never even seen a polygraph examination administered, much less examined any studies performed by some of the most reputable institutions of higher learning and governmental agencies in this country.

I remember when I first was asked by my boss at the Alabama Bureau of Investigation if I would like to attend polygraph school I had absolutely no knowledge of polygraph. He told me the U.S. Army had just relocated their military police school to Fort McClellan, Alabama and with it, their polygraph school. I told him I would like to attend, mainly because it seemed he thought it would be a good idea.

When I arrived at the school, which is now known as the Department of Defense Polygraph Institute, in August, 1976, I was completely in the dark as to what I was about to experience. After a couple of weeks of learning the basics of how polygraph works and learning how to operate the equipment we began testing soldiers. The thing that makes this school unique is that they have an endless supply of people to learn how to test on. Each morning they would bring ten soldiers over to the school. There were ten students in my class, so we each had a person to conduct a test on. They would take two or three of the ten soldiers and create a “mock” crime for them to have committed. This included things like a robbery, theft, etc. It was our job as students to conduct

folks who have never even seen a polygraph examination administered, much less examined any studies performed by some of the most reputable institutions of higher learning and governmental agencies in this country.

I remember when I first was asked by my boss at the Alabama Bureau of Investigation if I would like to attend polygraph school I had absolutely no knowledge of polygraph. He told me the U.S. Army had just relocated their military police school to Fort McClellan, Alabama and with it, their polygraph school. I told him I would like to attend, mainly because it seemed he thought it would be a good idea.

When I arrived at the school, which is now known as the Department of Defense Polygraph Institute, in August, 1976, I was completely in the dark as to what I was about to experience. After a couple of weeks of learning the basics of how polygraph works and learning how to operate the equipment we began testing soldiers. The thing that makes this school unique is that they have an endless supply of people to learn how to test on. Each morning they would bring ten soldiers over to the school. There were ten students in my class, so we each had a person to conduct a test on. They would take two or three of the ten soldiers and create a “mock” crime for them to have committed. This included things like a robbery, theft, etc. It was our job as students to conduct

had absolutely no knowledge of polygraph. He told me the U.S. Army had just relocated their military police school to Fort McClellan, Alabama and with it, their polygraph school. I told him I would like to attend, mainly because it seemed he thought it would be a good idea.

When I arrived at the school, which is now known as the Department of Defense Polygraph Institute, in August, 1976, I was completely in the dark as to what I was about to experience. After a couple of weeks of learning the basics of how polygraph works and learning how to operate the equipment we began testing soldiers. The thing that makes this school unique is that they have an endless supply of people to learn how to test on. Each morning they would bring ten soldiers over to the school. There were ten students in my class, so we each had a person to conduct a test on. They would take two or three of the ten soldiers and create a “mock” crime for them to have committed. This included things like a robbery, theft, etc. It was our job as students to conduct

f Defense Polygraph Institute, in August, 1976, I was completely in the dark as to what I was about to experience. After a couple of weeks of learning the basics of how polygraph works and learning how to operate the equipment we began testing soldiers. The thing that makes this school unique is that they have an endless supply of people to learn how to test on. Each morning they would bring ten soldiers over to the school. There were ten students in my class, so we each had a person to conduct a test on. They would take two or three of the ten soldiers and create a “mock” crime for them to have committed. This included things like a robbery, theft, etc. It was our job as students to conductow to test on. Each morning they would bring ten soldiers over to the school. There were ten students in my class, so we each had a person to conduct a test on. They would take two or three of the ten soldiers and create a “mock” crime for them to have committed. This included things like a robbery, theft, etc. It was our job as students to conduct tests on them to determine who was guilty. This testing never ceased to amaze me how we students “rank novices” that we were, would invariably come up with the right answer every single day. To this day when I hear some nay sayer knocking the accuracy of polygraph I wish just one of them would go and witness how miraculous this system really is.

According to the American Polygraph Association over 250 studies have been conducted on the accuracy of polygraph testing during the past 25 years. Based on the studies now available, experts have determined the accuracy of polygraph examinations administered by a competent examiner to be about 90%. The level of skill and experience of the examiner plays a key role in the accuracy of the examination. Comparative studies have also shown that polygraph examinations yield an accuracy that equals or exceeds that of many other forms of evidence. In fact, in one study it shows that polygraph examination produced an accuracy that was comparable to results obtained by document examiners and finger print analysts, and exceeded that of eyewitnesses. Most errors in polygraph can be blamed for an inexperienced examiner.