Police are to be trained in the use of lie-detectors to catch sex offenders for the first time in Britain.
Hertfordshire police, who are trialling a scheme examining the use of polygraphs, are sending a team on an 11-week course.
Detective Chief Inspector Stuart Orton said: “The polygraph testing is not about sex offenders confessing their crimes, it is about assessing the risk they pose to the community and in some cases themselves.
“It’s a measure used with other investigative tools by specialist officers in our child on-line safeguarding team to protect the public.
“In many instances individuals have been arrested and are on bail waiting for the technical analysis work to be undertaken on their computer equipment.
“By agreeing to an early polygraph test we can work with the offenders and understand the stress they are under and manage them more effectively.”
He said in one case, 31 men arrested for downloading indecent images were classified as low risk before polygraph testing revealed 24 of them actually posed a higher risk.
Course leader Professor Don Grubin, who holds the chair in forensic psychiatry at Newcastle University, said: “There is a good deal of evidence to show that polygraph testing has the potential to substantially increase information gain for little additional cost.
“It can in fact can save money by enabling police resources to be better targeted and speeding up the investigative process.”
Hertfordshire police and crime commissioner, David Lloyd, said: “Managing the risk that sex offenders pose is challenging and the police service must be creative in its approach.
“Hertfordshire Constabulary has been at the forefront of this innovative project which provides specialist officers with further ways to manage risk.
“I’m confident in the months ahead polygraph testing will prove to be highly successful.”
Detective Chief Inspector Stuart Orton said: “The polygraph testing is not about sex offenders confessing their crimes, it is about assessing the risk they pose to the community and in some cases themselves. “It’s a measure used with other investigative tools by specialist officers in our child on-line safeguarding team to protect the public.” That statement is absolutely absurdly ridiculous! How can you “assess” anything with the polygraph – it simply measures your heart rate, breathing, and perspiration!
This is an example of the problems that arise from the idiots in the media perpetuating the myth that the polygraph is a “lie detector” and giving the con men who administer these polygraph “tests” credibility that they do not deserve.
I am the only licensed polygraph expert who has ever told the truth about the polygraph, and the truth is, the polygraph is not a “lie detector”. I have been telling the truth about the scam called lie detection for almost forty years now in hopes of destroying the dangerous myth of “lie detection”. Carl Sagan said, “If it can be destroyed by the truth, it deserves to be destroyed by the truth.” And the truth is the polygraph is not a “lie detector”!
It is FOOLISH and DANGEROUS to use the polygraph as “lie detector” – the theory of “lie detection” is nothing but junk science. It is based on a faulty scientific premise. The polygraph operators have the audacity to say that there is such a thing as a “reaction indicative of deception”, when I can prove that “lying reaction” is simply a nervous reaction commonly referred to as the fight or flight syndrome. In fact, the polygraph is nothing but a psychological billy club that is used to coerce a person into making admissions or confessions. It is FOOLISH and DANGEROUS for the criminal justice system to rely on an instrument that has been thoroughly discredited to determine whether or not a person is truthful or deceptive, or to use it to guide their investigations in any way – especially when the results cannot even be used as evidence in a court of law!
Do you really think the polygraph is a “lie detector”? REALLY??? There is NO excuse for being that ignorant! Educate yourself! http://www.polygraph.com/index.php?the-lie-detector-is-bullshit-and-i-have-proved-it