Unit 8: Law, Courts, and Procedure

The Selection Process: The Polygraph Examination

Polygraph refers to equipment that measures three physiological responses: breathing patterns, blood pressure, and pulse and skin resistence to an electrical current. The federal Employee Protection Act of 1988 prohibits the use of the polygraph by most private agencies but government agencies are exempt from this restriction. In fact, most law enforcement agencies employ the polygraph examination in their screening process. The benefits are fourfold:

First, law enforcement agencies that publicize the use of a polygraph examination eliminate many undesirable applicants from applying for positions with their agencies.

Second, by using the polygraph to determine if an applicant was serious about pursuing a law enforcement career, agencies are able to reduce employee turnover.

Third, agencies who use the polygraph examination are publicly announcing that they are serious about hiring only the most qualified applicants.

Fourth, while an occasional undesirable will get by the polygraph examination, most will be eliminated. The two leading reasons for an applicant being eliminated are unacceptable drug use and undisclosed theft.

Many agencies use the polygraph after the applicant has passed all of the examinations except the background check. Information disclosed during the polygraph exam may give the investigator doing the background check additional information that otherwise may not have been available. Therefore, the polygraph exam addresses areas which normally cannot be readily examined during the background investigation, information that only the applicant would know.

The polygraph examination is used to verify information on the application, to discover criminal behavior, and to find previous work related problems. The examiner will ask about past use of drugs, previous criminal activity, and possibly social and work relationships. The procedure is for the polygraph examiner to conduct a preexamination interview of the applicant prior to administering the polygraph examination. The applicant will know what questions will be asked during the actual examination.

You should have a copy of all applications, resumes, and correspondence that you send to the agencies to which you are applying. Prior to taking the polygraph examination you should review all of these materials as they will provide the basis for many of the questions that you will be asked. Just about every trick imaginable has been tried to beat the polygraph, from the use of drugs to placing a sharp object in a shoe to cause pain that will supposedly skew the physiological responses, but seldom successfully. The best advice is to provide candid, brief responses to the examiner’s questions. Avoid volunteering information.

Some agencies do not require that an applicant have a history of total abstinence from illegal drugs, but might allow an applicant who has used marijuana infrequently in the past as long as it was not in the past six months. You will have been made aware of these policies in the application information that you received from the agency prior to submitting your application. If you were not truthful on your application, there is a good chance that you will be discovered during the polygraph examination. It is better, therefore, to be truthful during the examination, even if it contradicts previously submitted information. Hopefully, it will only be a minor contradiction that can be explained.