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The Relevant Issue
http://www.polygraphplace.com
Issue #115 - January 15, 2005
Relevant Issue Archives:
http://www.polygraphplace.com/articles
____________________________________________________________
IN THIS ISSUE:
1. EDITORIAL: "Top True Polygraph Story of the Year"
2 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: "Responses
to the NTS letter"
3. IN THE FORUMS:
PUBLIC FORUM: "Does anyone know the CIA policy on
prior drug use? How long do you have to wait before
you can be considered for employment? 1 year? 3 years?
Thanks in advance for any responses!"
EXAMINERS ONLY FORUM: "Something about...
Polyester, fruitcakes, Jim's
secrets, bouncing checks,
raw sewage, tiki torches, a scooter in the pawn shop
and Tedd with two d's...or is it one d?"
Join the banter
There are now 134 examiners
registered to use the
private forum.
4. UPCOMING SEMINARS: Is your
state association having
a seminar anytime in the year 2005?
Please send me the details so we can let everyone
know.
NATIONAL POLYGRAPH ASSOCIATION
January 2005
ISRAELI POLYGRAPH ASSOCIATION January 2005
MARYLAND POLYGRAPH ASSOCIATION February 2005
MISSOURI POLYGRAPH ASSOCIATION Aug/Sept 2005
NEW JERSEY POLYGRAPHISTS September 2005
ALABAMA POLYGRAPH ASSOCIATION Oct/Nov 2005
____________________________________________________________
1. EDITORIAL: "Top True Polygraph Story of the Year"
I've gotten a couple of terrific
stories in the race for
True Story of the Year, but I'm still waiting on yours.
Won't you take just five minutes
and tell me about your
best polygraph test this year. Did you change someone's
life with your instrument and your intuition? Then let's
hear about it.
If you need to keep it anonymous...that's
okay, as long
as it's true.
And you can also win yourself
a free Polygraph Place Polo
shirt to boot.
Please hit reply to this email
and shoot me your best
story of the year.
Ralph Hilliard - mailto:support@polygraphplace.com
____________________________________________________________
2 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: "Responses to the NTS letter"
Editor's Comments: I think
some people misunderstood
my motive for printing the letter in the last issue.
I got an email or two from examiners who thought I
was in support of the letter and was helping
disseminate the false information. Nothing could be
further from the truth. It was printed as an example
of what WE DO NOT NEED TO BE DOING TO EACH OTHER.
The original NTS letter is
posted here for reference:
http://www.polygraphplace.com/articles/issue114.htm
Elmer chose not to respond
to the letter and instead will
be writing up a short expose on what his school IS about
and what they DO provide. This will be in the next issue.
I also received two other
responses which are printed
below. One is from Barry Cushman, a prior student of the
Harrisburg Area Community College Polygraph Institute
and the second is an official response by T.V. O'Malley
who is Chairman of the American Polygraph Association's
Education Accreditation Committee.
(for clarification in the
letter from Barry below)
NTC = National Training Center of Polygraph Science
NCTC = Northeast Counterdrug Training Center
BARRY CUSHMAN WRITES:
After reading the reprint
of NTC's letter regarding, among
other things, the Pennsylvania State Police/Harrisburg
Area Community College Polygraph Institute at the
Northeast Counterdrug Training Center, and I was
surprised, to say the least, to see such patently false
information contained in the letter.
First, let me say I am a graduate
of the school, and I am
offended by the charge of incompetence - apparently of all
NTCT's graduates - by the author of the letter.
In regard to funding, NCTC's
Polygraph Institute is funded
by drug asset forfeiture grants, which is why all the
courses there, including the polygraph course, have a drug
nexus. (It is my understanding most 2005 courses have been
cancelled - including two out of three of this year's
polygraph courses - due to lack of funding; however, there
are a number of us who are practicing polygraph who have
been slandered in the letter.) What makes more sense,
having a law enforcement agency pay for a course with
taxpayer dollars or letting the drug dealers themselves
foot the bill?
NCTC serves 18 northeastern
states; however, should
students from those areas not fill a class, NCTC will
accept students from other states, which is why Alaska
sent a student. I was a student at the school at the same
time as the Alaskan student, and I am well aware of Dick
Arther's attempt to sway the student's chief (an NTC
graduate himself) to send the student to the NTC.
Obviously there is some resentment by private schools of
the so-called *free* schools, which is somewhat
understandable, but it is no reason to resort to ad
hominem attacks on their students.
Despite what the letter says,
the main technique taught
was not the Keeler technique. (Actually, there are a few
versions of the *technique.* Of course it was taught, as
were the following: Arther SAT and Known Lie Test;
Backster *YOU* Phase, Exploratory, and SKY tests; Canadian
Police College *A* and *B-Series* Tests; DoDPI *YOU*
Phase, Bi-Zone (or Bi-Spot), Army MGQT, Air Force MGQT,
Navy CIS MGQT, and Secret Service MGQT, Gordon Integrated
ZCT; Marcy MGQT; The Matte tests; Reid MGQT, Utah ZCT,
Peak-of-Tension and Searching POT tests; and the Concealed
Knowledge Tests (GKT). (There were others as well.)
The *main* techniques taught
- or emphasized - were the
DoDPI tests, particularly the Bi-Zone. The other
techniques were taught to various degrees. Some, such as
the Arther tests, were taught not necessarily so one would
run the tests - though we could - but rather to recognize
and interpret another's exam should the need arise. My New
York State Police comrades benefited greatly from the
instruction on the Arther tests as all their prior
examiners were NTC trained.
As an aside, how a test with
only a 5% error rate is
*worthless* is beyond me. According to the author's
figures, one could make a decision in 75% of the tests run
and have a 95% confidence level. That sounds exemplary
(compared to other psychological tests) - not worthless.
I must add here though, the scientific literature on the
subject does not reflect the numbers the author asserts.
Rather, the literature suggests a standard R/I test is
very accurate at identifying the deceptive, but it does so
at the expense of a high number of false positives. I
can't think of any (R/I) studies in which any inconclusive
results were reported.
Also, we do not just *operate
a computer polygraph.* We
spent roughly half the class on analog instruments and
half on computerized instruments. Any of Elmer's grads
can run a test on either type of instrument.
I don't even know where to
begin regarding the charge of
not knowing what we are doing. Elmer Criswell, the
school's director, is a well-known and respected expert in
polygraph science. Not only is Elmer a high-quality and
knowledgeable instructor, he employs some of the country's
best known and respected polygraph examiners. Some of my
instructors included APA president Jack Consigli (he
taught Backster techniques), James Matte (Matte
techniques), Don Krapohl (various topics), Dr. Frank Sack
(a *Green Hippo,* countermeasures), AAPP president Bruce
Robertson (another *Green Hippo,* pre-employment
screening), to name a few.
Where the charges of high
inconclusive and low confession
rates come from I don't know. From my conversations with
other NCTC students such claims are unfounded. I actually
expected more inconclusive results than I have
experienced. I teach interview and interrogation and
statement analysis, and I can state with confidence those
two subjects were well covered in Elmer's course. I've
corresponded with a couple classmates who have been
almost shocked to have heard some of the admissions they
have been able to obtain from examinees.
The real irony in the assertion
that we don't know what we
are doing is the fact that much of our reading assignments
involved studying dozens of NTC founder Dick Arther's
articles in THE JOURNAL of Polygraph Science. We had to
memorize - verbatim - his *Golden Rules,* the *Eight
Known-Lie Principles,* and his *Ten Commandments.* To this
day, I run and develop POT tests according to Dick
Arther's model - right down to Dick's recommended hand
movements I use as I explain the test.
I have never met Dick Arther,
but I have nothing but
respect for the man. After being exposed to so many of his
teachings (most of which is excellent, a few bizarre, and
some I question), I can clearly see how much his work has
influenced the evolution of polygraph science to where it
is today.
There is no question I have
more tools in my polygraph
*tool box* than do most examiners as I was exposed to so
much during my training at NCTC. I am not simply an
*operator* or technician, and I was more than prepared to
pass my state's licensing exam. I would highly recommend
the school even if there were a high price tag attached.
This is a debate we should
not be engaged in, and I am
saddened I even have to respond to such baseless claims.
Barry Cushman
Portland Police Department
********************************************************
T.V. O'MALLEY WRITES:
As the Chairman of the American
Polygraph Association's
Education Accreditation Committee, I feel compelled to
respond to a recent article published in The Polygraph
Place's, Relevant Issue #114, dated January 01, 2005. The
letter called into question and directly attacked the
reputation of a fully APA accredited polygraph training
facility and members of the school staff. I am not
personally motivated to pen these comments but rather feel
professionally responsible to set this record straight.
As the letter accurately states,
polygraph schools indeed
are not all the same. Schools that do not meet strict
accreditation guidelines can provide any training
curriculum they want and call it a basic polygraph
course. Polygraph schools teaching polygraph science are
not required to be accredited. The APA is the only
organization that actually conducts a thorough
accreditation investigation to verify compliance to
specific minimum standards. Polygraph training schools
refusing to set their minimum standards high enough to
meet the criterion set by the APA consciously do so.
Minimum standards for APA accreditation are published and
available for anyone to research on the APA website.
Acceptable curriculums established for basic polygraph
training course are essentially the same for the APA and
ASTM alike. ASTM generally adopted and published the
minimum professional standards established by the APA.
ASTM does not accredit, endorse, or verify training
compliance provided by any school.
If a polygraph training school
is awarded APA
accreditation it is quite an accomplishment. APA polygraph
school accreditation demonstrates a school's serious
commitment to the welfare of the polygraph profession and
to the student examiners in attendance. The APA feels
strongly that the accreditation process helps guarantees
the continuity of polygraph educations and the consistency
of polygraph training from school to school. This in turn
benefits the profession internationally. No polygraph
training school in existence today meeting APA and ASTM
minimum standards has failed to apply for APA
accreditation. The accreditation process is costly, time
consuming and labor intensive for all parties involved.
In the last three years half the schools applying for
accreditation have been denied that status due to
significant deficiencies in their programs.
It is not the APA's intention
to demean or denigrate the
graduates non APA accredited schools. We have opened the
door wide to them. The APA created a simple means for non
accredited polygraph school graduates to join our
association even though their training would have
otherwise disqualified them as members in the
association. The APA encourages professional polygraph
examiners no matter where they went to school to attend
continued education training and polygraph seminars
wherever they may be held. Our hope has been not only to
increase our numbers but to allow polygraph professionals
everywhere to speak with a unified, educated voice
benefiting the polygraph industry and polygraph
professionals worldwide.
I have been associated with
APA accreditation Committee
for 10 years. I have been the committee chairman for the
last four. Serving as a committee accreditation inspector,
I critically inspected schools director Elmer Criswell
supervised on three separate occasions. The first time I
met Elmer was during my inspection of the Harrisburg
Community College Polygraph School in Harrisburg
Pennsylvania. Approximately two years later after an open
bid process, Harrisburg Community College was awarded a
federal training grant and Elmer was hired as the director
of that polygraph program. The new school was known as
the Pennsylvania State Police, Harrisburg Area Community
College, Polygraph Institute, North East Drug Training
Center. Later when a new and advanced training facility
was built it was thoroughly inspected again for training
standards compliance.
The Pennsylvania State Police,
Harrisburg Area Community
College, Polygraph Institute, North East Drug Training
Center is a first class training facility in every regard.
The school employs a number of top notch instructors from
across the country, all renowned in their individual
fields of specialty. The course doesn't merely meet APA
minimum guidelines for numbers of hours of instruction,
it exceeds it. The school teaches methodologies in all
polygraph formats currently accepted by the scientific
community. Training equipment used for teaching and
specialized equipment utilized by the students is all
state of the art and 21st century.
The school still teaches analog
instrumentation because it
is part of the APA required curriculum. Here I would add
that that today any polygraph school not incorporating
computerized instrumentation into their course curriculum
is out of touch with the dynamics of the science of
polygraph and contemporary lie detection.
The art and science of Polygraph
is not stagnant. When
Polygraph as an industry grew complacent through the
60's, 70's and 80's, we were forced to acknowledge that
some of our methods were flawed. Since that time
polygraph, as an industry, has made improvements and
continues to search for new and innovative ways to
better provide deception detection services. Today,
science is once again on our side but we cannot afford to
remain complacent. Research and technology are our
friends. We need to use them. We need not fear them.
There are those among us that
appear to be totally and
blindly committed to polygraph techniques only as they
were in the past. Ego based objections to change and
progress is unhealthy for the growth of any profession.
I find it audacious that the
letter's author boldly
ridicules and condemns those law enforcement officers and
law enforcement administrators with the nerve to consider
sending a prospective PDD student to another polygraph
school. What arrogance? There are a number of really good
polygraph schools. There are almost two dozen polygraph
schools accredited by the APA located around the globe.
Finally, if the school the
author is associated with is
having trouble getting attendees, maybe the problem isn't
other schools. Maybe the problem is closer and more
obvious. I think some honest introspection might be
appropriate here.
There are other derogatory
remarks and absolute
inaccuracies that I am not going to address. As you can
probably tell, it isn't because I am at a loss for words.
I simply think most readers are smart enough to read
between the remaining lines.
Please do not misunderstand
the purpose for my writing
this letter. There is and can be no acceptable
justification for the comments made in the Article
published by the Polygraph Place since I know them to be
blatantly untrue. As a proud polygraph professional, I am
disappointed and disheartened by the author's attempt to
discredit this fine and professional training facility
and the reputation of a good man for the sake of
increasing attendance at failing polygraph school.
Sincerely,
T.V. O'Malley
Vice President, private, APA
Chairman, APA Education Accreditation Committee
Chairman, APA Continuing Education Committee
Chairman, APA Continuing Education via Distance Learning
Committee
To Comment, hit reply and
these will be forwarded to the
appropriate author.
____________________________________________________________
3. IN THE FORUMS:
*** PUBLIC FORUM ***
"Does anyone know the
CIA policy on prior drug use? How
long do you have to wait before you can be considered
for employment? 1 year? 3 years? Thanks in advance for
any responses!"
http://www.polygraphplace.com/ubb/NonCGI/Forum1/HTML/000271.html
*** EXAMINERS ONLY FORUM ***
"Something about...
Polyester, fruitcakes, Jim's
secrets, bouncing checks,
raw sewage, tiki torches, a scooter in the pawn shop
and Tedd with two d's...or is it one d?"
Join the banter
To read and respond on this topic, you must have
registered and specifically requested access to the
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You can read the requirements
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http://www.polygraphplace.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/Ultimate.cgi
Just scroll to the bottom
and READ ALL THE DIRECTIONS
under the heading...
*** Polygraph Professionals only - A PRIVATE Forum ***
-------------------------------------------------------------
----P.S. Don't Forget to send me your true polygraph story---
-------------------------------------------------------------
_____________________________________________________________
4. UPCOMING SEMINARS: Is your state association having
a seminar anytime in the year 2005?
Please send me the details so we can let everyone
know. mailto:support@polygraphplace.com
-----------------------------------------------
- NATIONAL POLYGRAPH ASSOCIATION 2005 SEMINAR -
-----------------------------------------------
When? January 24-26th, 2005
Where? Imperial Palace Hotel & Casino
Las Vegas, NV
For information contact Gary Davis 785-828-3248
e-mail: nationalpolygraph@yahoo.com
-----------------------------------------------
- ISRAELI POLYGRAPH ASSOCIATION 2005 SEMINAR -
-----------------------------------------------
When? January 27-29th, 2005
What? Post Conviction Sex Offender
Lectures
Who? Main Speaker will be Dan Sosnowski
For information contact IPEA President Shlomo Bruck
e-mail: uranus@inter.net.il
-----------------------------------------------
- MARYLAND POLYGRAPH ASSOCIATION 2005 SEMINAR -
-----------------------------------------------
When? February 3-4, 2005
Where? Comfort Inn - 800-424-6423
Bowie, MD. 20716
How Much? $175 for MPA members, $200 non-members
For information contact Dan Seiler 301-791-7039 ext 117
e-mail: dan@copscorp.com
-----------------------------------------------
- MISSOURI POLYGRAPH ASSOCIATION 2005 SEMINAR -
-----------------------------------------------
When? Aug 31st - Sept 2nd,
2005
Where? Chateau on The Lake - $99/night
Branson, MO.
http://www.chateauonthelakebranson.com
Includes: Kansas & Nebraska Associations
For information contact John M. Hurlock at (816)-739-9951
e-mail: jmhurlock@aol.com
-----------------------------------------
- NEW JERSEY POLYGRAPHISTS 2005 SEMINAR -
-----------------------------------------
When? September 14th-16th,
2005
Where? Freedhold Gardens Hotel $75/night
Freedhold NJ.
Who? Speaker will be Donald Krapohl of DODPI
How Much? $150 for NJP members, $200 non-members
For information contact Thomas DeBruin at 732-229-5226
----------------------------------------------
- ALABAMA POLYGRAPH ASSOCIATION 2005 SEMINAR -
----------------------------------------------
When? Oct 29th - Nov 3rd,
2005
Where? Carnival Cruise to Mexico - $482.50/person
Departs Mobile, AL.
Who? Speaker will be Scott Manners
How Much? $482.50 per person covers all costs
For information contact Herbert McCants
email: hmmccants@asdd.com
____________________________________________________________
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