Opinion Story: Lie Detector

Disclaimer: This article is an opinion story written by a Villager author. In no ways should it force you to change its beliefs or adopt them just because it is the author's opinion.

Polygraphs, AKA "Lie Detectors," have been widely publicized in the media as these machines that can catch a crook without fail. The American Polygraph Association (APA) has assured us that nothing can go wrong and that the machines will keep up from harm.

A polygraph functions by monitoring the sweatiness of the fingertips, blood pressure, heart rate, and respiratory rate while the examinee is asked a series of questions. If the machine thinks the examinee is lying, the polygraph sends messages to the examiner, telling him that something is wrong. However, the examinee can keep his body from emitting the signals while lying, or an innocent victim is jailed.

Of the thousands of polygraph tests given each year, 81 percent of them are "correct," according to the APA. Of those, roughly 10 percent are convicted unfairly due to faulty equipment or some other reason. 71 Percent of all lie detectors are valid, below average. No one would trust a failing student with their life, so neither should we. Gary Leon Ridgway, one of the United States' most infamous killers and the supposed Green River Killer, passed a lie detector test after being caught, then was released to kill again.

Ridgway isn't the only person to pass a polygraph. Spies Ignatz Theodor Griebl, Karel Frantisek Koecher, Jiri Pasovsky, Larry Wu-Tai Chin, Aldrich Hazen Ames, Ana Belen Montes, and Leandro Aragoncillo all passed the polygraph test. Countless Al-Qaeda members and Iraqi insurgents have gotten away, too.

Here's another thing: the Department of Defense Polygraph Institute, which boasts the longest-running school for polygraph testers, can give a person a polygraph license in 14 weeks, which is less than half the time it takes for a person to graduate from a rural barber school. Cleve Backster, the man who started the Central Intelligence Agency's polygraph program, believed that plants can read human thoughts. Even past APA president "Doctor" Edward I. Gelb (who tested high-profile subjects including OJ Simpson and the parents of Jon Benet Ramsey) had a phony PhD yet convinced others he did for years, before someone looked around and discovered it was a phony.

Polygraphs are not suitable for judging whether or not a person is guilty of committing a crime or not. The risks are too high for a false conviction, and those trained to cheat will have no trouble getting away. The National Academy of Sciences agrees. According to them, "the [polygraph testings] accuracy in distinguishing actual or potential security violators from innocent test takers is insufficient to justify reliance on its use in employee security screening in federal agencies." Let's follow their example.

Written By: Santa's Mage172
Edited By:Fullmetal Shinobi
Coded By: Mr Penguin12