r/AskLE • u/Specter1033 Fed • 1d ago
***MODPOST*** Polygraph Posts Will Be Removed. Don't post them here.
Love it, hate it, the voodoo box is here to stay. It probably won't be changing for a while until more comprehensive standards come down the pipeline nationally and agencies transition to them.
This presents a challenge for us here because we end up in a dilemma with the point of this subreddit. While we understand the process can be confusing and people want answers, we have historically experienced a great deal of consternation with this topic and it usually ends with a fight that causes a lot of headaches for the mod team.
Generally speaking, none of us are going to be able to answer specific questions as to the why or how. We weren't there. We don't know what you were subjected to or what the administrator saw when they gave you the "test." So here's some general advice on the topic:
Be consistent with your answers. Everything from your application to the Personal History Questionnaire will be scrutinized. The cumulative information as a whole is assessed by the examiner and background investigator to develop inconsistencies that question an applicants integrity. Small, innocuous things are red flags to an examiner and a BI that they hone in on during the administration of the "test" that is designed to trip you up and cause you to react to the "box."
The machine is NOT a lie detector. It's a device designed to measure reactions within your body that the administrator "interprets" as being an "indicator" of deception, which is highly subjective and is not based on actual defined scientific methodologies.
The point of number two is to give you an idea of what the process is, not to tell you there is a magical "method" to the process. Every process is different and there are (literally) hundreds of ways they can be administered. I have taken more than a dozen of them over my 20+ years in law enforcement and the military and none of them have been the same. I have taken them in a group setting with hundreds of distractions flying around and some that were more akin to a homeopathic group therapy hippie convention than what should have been a professional setting determining your future. That is the reason why these tests are not admissible in court, because the process highly subjective and interpretation depends on a litany of factors far too broad and expansive that there is no process to determine a comprehensive legal standard.
Research on this subject is highly discouraged for a reason. Plenty of information on the polygraph can come to you with a quick Google search, but this in itself can be considered a "flag" that administrators hone in on because of the variety of information available. There are "guides" out there to make people believe they can manipulate the process. There are "guides" out there describing the intense process of training your body to "react" to the machine to skew your results. There are groups dedicated to "stopping" the administration of the polygraph because it's based on junk science and try to sell you a story on what you can do about it. This is nothing new and has been going on for decades. Some agencies have stopped them, some have adopted them. They still exist despite it. The point is that nothing is definitive and there is nothing you think you can do because you read some crap online about it. Just follow the directions and do the best you can.
On the topic of directions, some common things people do before they take the exam are: don't get a good night's sleep (probably because they are nervous about taking it), change their answers, don't eat, drink too much water to make them have to pee, don't relax, hit the gym the night before so your ass is sore and tired, don't read the pre-poly instructions and questionnaire, don't follow directions. Do the opposite of all that.
Hopefully, this gives prospective applicants a window in to this topic. Good luck and don't give up! Just because you got bit by the voodoo box once, doesn't mean you're done. Keep pushing on and try, try again.