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Applicant stung by the sting manual - Submitted by John Patterson - Richmond, VA. See John's listing on polygraphplace.com to inquire about his services
With the internet so convenient, it is common practice, these days, for us to go to it anytime we want information about something for which we are not familiar.
So was the case of a young law enforcement applicant who came into my office for a polygraph screening for our department. He was a nice clean-cut young man with a bachelors degree in Criminal Justice, and his goal was to be a career law enforcement officer. His background investigator told me he was a good candidate, and that if he passed the polygraph, he most likely would be hired.
I went through my
normal pretest interview and asked him if he had done anything to familiarize
himself about polygraph, and he said he had not.
As we sat and talked and reviewed the questions, I noticed he seemed
to be a little anxious and nervous. I conducted an acquaintance test,
as I usually do, and he gave proper physiological reactions with nothing
looking suspicious.
During the pre-employment examination I saw reactions noticeably different from what I had seen on the acquaintance test.
I have attended workshops on countermeasures at the APA seminars and read articles regarding them in the professional journals and newsletters I receive, as well as what I have read on the Polygraph Place website.
I recognized these
countermeasures to be what is recommended by a Doug Williams (How to
Sting the Polygraph), who purports himself to have been a sworn law
enforcement polygraph examiner. I confronted this applicant with my
suspicions, and he first denied doing anything.
When I then told him the website he had visited to obtain his information
and how much he paid for it, he nervously admitted he was “stung”.
I told the applicant he probably would have been hired, if he had told the truth about everything up front, but now we could not hire him because his credibility had been compromised. Not only would we not hire him, but because law enforcement agencies share information about applicants to their departments, that it was likely no other law enforcement agency would hire him either. This young man not only shot $50 for bogus information, but also a four year college degree in criminal justice and a career goal.
Applicant stung by the sting manual - Submitted by John Patterson - Richmond, VA. See John's listing on polygraphplace.com to inquire about his services
Polygraph Examiners can email us their stories unedited to support@polygraphplace.com.
Please remember that these are being read by lay persons so try to avoid
technical terminology in the story.