So, the police are keen on the idea of using polygraphs, eh?
The devices are for the first time being used by detectives for pre-conviction testing in the UK in a trial which could pave the way for their introduction across the country.
Oh, my… I am aware that the US law enforcement agencies use these things, but I thought – hoped – that we were above using snake oil type remedies. I suppose that hope was naïve, given that our government has fallen hook line and sinker for just about every junk science scam laid at their door by any rent seeking shill that passes by, but lie detectors, for fuck’s sake?
Yes, sure, they can be used to measure stress. However, stress and lying are not necessarily correlated – after all, being arrested and interrogated for something you didn’t do is likely to be highly stressful. And there is the little matter that people can train themselves to fool them anyway. Frankly, they might just as well be using an e-meter.
Until now, they have most prominently been used to settle domestic disputes on ITV’s daytime television programme The Jeremy Kyle Show.
Which, frankly, is the best place for them.
H/T Greg Tingey via email
Will it also be used on the arresting officer.
TOTO – Like it!
I know what I’ll do if I ever get pushed in front of one of these.
I shall demand that careful notes be taken, get wired up, then state something like:
” I have no confidence whatsoever in the efficacy of this sham “meter” that I am attached to whilst making this statement. I am quite aware that they are second-order indicators of STRESS, measured as changes in skin resistance by the apparatus.
No statement taken whilst attached to this “mter”, other than this one, is to be regarded as admissible in any court of law”
And – where would you like the electrodes inserted, officer?
XX Oh, my… I am aware that the US law enforcement agencies use these things,XX
Aye. But in most states, the results are not admissable in court as evidence, California as one example, and even the FBI and CIA only give them a 50% success rating, at BEST.