Matt Fiore writes for the James Randi Educational Foundation’s Swift blog on how, despite popular perceptions, the pseudoscience of polygraphy has not truly been banished from American courtrooms.
Will Shetterly Discusses His Experience with the Polygraph
In “Confessions of a Detected Liar,” Novelist and short story writer Will Shetterly relates the story of how he twice failed polygraph “tests” despite telling the truth. See also the comments left by polygraph operator Louis Rovner of Los Angeles attempting to rationalize away the polygraph’s error and mischaracterizing the findings of the National Academy of Sciences’ review of the scientific evidence on the polygraph.
Britain’s Best-Known Lie Detector Operator, Bruce Burgess, Is a Liar
Bruce Burgess
British polygraph operator Bruce Burgess, who conducts lie detector tests for tawdry TV talk shows in the UK, has been caught attempting to lie his way out of a speeding ticket by falsely claiming that he was not the driver. According to the UK Press Association, Burgess has been given a suspended 24-week prison sentence, ordered to carry out 180 hours of community service, fined £250, and “ordered to pay £1,250 in costs and a £15 victim surcharge.”
And Clare Semke reporting for the Portsmouth News, quotes Portsmouth’s transport chief, Councillor Lynne Stagg, as saying of Burgess, “He’s a very silly man. Anybody who falsifies information is incredibly stupid. I can imagine, being in his position, if he had made his career based on telling the truth and he has suddenly found himself in this situation it could have been pure panic.”
It would appear that Burgess is indeed in panic mode. His website (http://www.bruceburgess.co.uk) has vanished from the Web and presently returns a 404 (file not found) error. The Internet Archive Wayback Machine’s most recent cache of the site, dated 12 June 2008, is available here.
District Attorney Finds No Evidence Against North Carolina’s Top Polygraph Operator
Jon Ostendorff reports for the Asheville Citizen-Times that North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Chris Smith, who supervises the Bureau’s polygraph unit, will not be criminally prosecuted for allegedly assaulting a suspect he had polygraphed. Although not specifically mentioned in the article, it would appear that no video recording was made of the interrogation session in question. Routine videotaping of all interrogations (including polygraph interrogations) would serve as a deterrent both to misconduct by law enforcement personnel and false complaints by suspects. While Special Agent Smith has escaped prosecution, a cloud of doubt remains over his head, with the district attorney finding Smith’s explanation of the incident “to be ridiculous and insulting to the intelligence of any reasonable person.” Had the entire session been video-recorded, a more conclusive determination of what transpired might have been reached.
Reporter Jon Ostendorff writes:
SYLVA — A prosecutor on Tuesday dismissed an assault charge against the State Bureau of Investigation’s top polygraph agent but said he is concerned about the officer’s conduct.
District Attorney Richard Shaffer said he found no evidence Special Agent Chris Smith assaulted Whittier resident Kenneth Rhinehart after a lie-detector test April 23 at the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office. Continue reading ‘District Attorney Finds No Evidence Against North Carolina’s Top Polygraph Operator’ »
North Carolina’s Senior Polygrapher Charged with Assault
Jon Ostendorff reports for the Asheville Citizen-Times that the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations’ senior polygraph examiner, Special Agent Chris Smith, who supervises all the Bureau’s polygraphers, was arrested and charged with assault in August 2009. Smith is currently free on $200,000 bond:
SYLVA — The State Bureau of Investigation’s top polygraph agent is charged with assaulting a man suspected of molesting a child in Jackson County.
The SBI put Special Agent Chris Smith on administrative duty Sept. 8 while internal affairs investigators looked into allegations that he pushed Whittier resident Kenneth Rhinehart into a wall, a spokeswoman for the agency said Monday.
He remains on that assignment, which means he can’t participate in investigations.
His court date is scheduled for Dec. 1.
The agency gave its report on the incident to District Attorney Michael Bonfoey in October.
The state assigned Cleveland County District Attorney Rick Shaffer to handle the prosecution after Bonfoey recused his office because it has worked closely with Smith as a police witness in the past.
The allegation could have ramifications in other sex crimes cases in Jackson County, where Smith performed lie-detector tests.
He is the SBI’s polygraph coordinator, overseeing all of the state’s lie detector agents. He has been with the agency since 1997. Continue reading ‘North Carolina’s Senior Polygrapher Charged with Assault’ »
Polygrapher Patrick T. Coffey Threatens Lawsuit, Demands Retraction
Patrick T. Coffey
Polygraph operator Patrick T. Coffey of San Francisco has threatened AntiPolygraph.org co-founder George Maschke with a defamation lawsuit. In a letter (877 kb PDF) dated 4 September 2009 sent by U.S. mail and fax, Coffey’s attorney, Carleton L. Briggs, demands “a full and complete retraction” of the 20 August 2009 blog post, “Is Patrick T. Coffey Fit to Be Screening Police Applicants?”
The letter, ominously titled “Coffey v. SF Weekly, Maschke, et al.” begins (hyperlinks supplied):
I represent Patrick T. Coffey, the subject of an article entitled “Is Patrick Coffey Fit to Be Screening Police Applicants?” which appeared on your blog on August 20, 2009. Your article referred to, and contained a hyperlink to, an article entitled “The Lie Detective” by Matt Smith in the August 19-25 issue of SF Weekly, Volume 28, Number 30. I enclose a copy of your article and of the SF Weekly article, which quotes both you and your blog.
Continue reading ‘Polygrapher Patrick T. Coffey Threatens Lawsuit, Demands Retraction’ »
Is Patrick T. Coffey Fit to Be Screening Police Applicants?
Following up on his previous article on the San Francisco Police Department’s reliance on polygraph screening–despite broad scientific consensus that it is invalid–S.F. Weekly reporter Matt Smith takes an in-depth look at the man the SFPD has hired to polygraph applicants: Patrick T. Coffey, who received “$81,463 during the last fiscal year” for his services. Smith addresses bigoted postings that Coffey made to the AntiPolygraph.org message board in 2005 under the moniker “TheNoLieGuy4U” and also reveals that Coffey paid $10,000 to settle a 2002 lawsuit by a man who alleged that Coffey “performed a voice-stress-analysis exam on him without permission.”
S.F. Weekly Rips San Francisco Police Department’s Reliance on Polygraphy
In a well-researched article, S.F. Weekly reporter Matt Smith critically examines the SFPD’s reliance on polygraphy for applicant screening, despite it being completely discredited among scientists. Those interviewed include retired FBI scientist Dr. Drew Richardson, Professor Stephen Fienberg, who headed a National Academy of Sciences panel that reviewed the scientific evidence on polygraphy, and polygraph operator Patrick Coffey, who’s company conducts polygraph examinations for the SFPD (and who in the past has trolled AntiPolygraph.org’s forums under the moniker, TheNoLieGuy4U).
Scott Lilienfeld on Polygraphy
Emory University professor of psychology Scott Lilienfeld, who pens Psychology Today’s The Skeptical Psychologist blog, lambastes polygraphy (and the U.S. government’s continued reliance on this pseudoscience) in an article titled, “The Polygraph Strikes–and Strikes Out–Again.”
Polygraph Dragnet Planned in Houston Fire Department Harassment Investigation
Fox 26 News KRVI in Houston, Texas reports that all employees at the Houston Fire Department’s Station 54 will be asked to submit to lie detector “testing” in a racial and sexual harassment investigation:
HOUSTON – FOX 26 has learned that every employee at Houston Fire Department Fire Station 54 will be asked to take a polygraph test.
Station 54 became the center of the controversy after two female firefighters found sexist and racist graffiti on the walls of their dorms. FOX 26 was the first to report the alleged incident.
Joseph Ahmad, the attorney representing Jane Draycott and Paula Keyes also confirmed the two women underwent a voluntary city polygraph test earlier Monday. This is in addition to the polygraph testing done last week by an independent examiner.
Last week Ahmad said Draycott passed the private test with flying colors.
This planned polygraph dragnet has little prospect of getting to the truth of this matter. Polygraphy has no scientific basis: it’s inherently biased against the truthful, and it is quite common for innocent people to wrongly fail. On the other hand, liars can pass using simple countermeasures such as those outlined in AntiPolygraph.org’s free book, The Lie Behind the Lie Detector (1 mb PDF).
If the Houston Fire Department is serious about investigating this matter, then rather than resorting to voodoo science, it should conduct a thorough evidence-based investigation.