LIE TESTING PERIL SEEN BY PROBERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000400150010-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 29, 1999
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: April 12, 1964
• Content Type: NSPR

Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP
WAS}UNGTON POST
AND TIMES HERALD APR t ?. 1964
I,ie Tes~ng `~'
4~Pe~il ~~en
Probers'.
the device in interpreting
physical signs-as recorded.
By David Kraslow
The Loa Anielel Tlrnss
congressional committee
investigating use of the lie
detector by Federal agencies
seems to have established this
basic point:
Be wary about polygraph
(lie detector) examinations.
Not because there Is anything
wrong with the machine---as a
machine-but because of strik-
ing ,testimony 'that most of the
people who operate the "ma
chines have no business doing
so.
Contrary to what may be
,.popular belief, the polygraph
`does not detect lies., That is
"done by the person operating
On-e source close to the com-
mittee does not rule out the
possibility that the committee
will recommend that the Fed-
eral Government abolish the
use of the polygraph for job
applicants.
"At the very least," he Bald,
"the committee will recoiri-
mend tough Government-wide
standards for polygraph' test-
ing."
The committee is clearly dis-
turbed by the absence of cen-
tral control in the Government
over the use of what Inbau
said could be a "dangerous"
Instrument in the hands of an
unqualified or unscrupulous
examiner.
changes induced by various;. Inbau, It should be noted,
, questions. stanchity defended the poly-
In the words of chairman' five aidsprovidedbthe exam in-
John E. Moss (D-Calif.) of a, er is qualified. The difficulty
House Government Operations; is that even experts disagree
Subcommittee: "The human on what constitutes a qualified
being Is the, lie detector, not. examiner.
the machine.
Then the is this observa Polygraph testing has grpwn
tion of Prof. Fred E. Inbau of within the Federal Govern-
the Northwestern University being men paid with to little the attention rc e.
Law School: "Eighty per cent The practice.
of the persons operatin T Moss committee's inquiry
g poly- appears to be the first under-
graphs do not measure up to taken on Capitol Hill on a
the standards we feel' are
required." Government-wide. basis.
Neither ststatement was cha4- According to the committee's
lenged er Lg.'the committee's study, 19 Federal agencies, em-
639, ,
hearings last week. The effect th peyipg g
the used
ra. phexaminers
was that a committee that al- year ended e- i3 ?0the fiscal
ready was hostile to the use of Yed June 3, 1963, .
lie detectors is even more so More than 23,000 tests were
with expert testimony on the given, largely by military in.
,record.' ..~ te11 ence,and police agencies.
FOIAb3b'
CPYRGHT
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00149RO0d400150010-4