Polygraph Article 4

Polygraph Articles Page 4

Telling the truth about lie detectors
By Dan Vergano, USA TODAY

A long-time law enforcement favorite, the lie detector, now finds itself sweating the hot lights of scientific inquiry. Crime dramas have long depicted the polygraph's tangle of wires and wiggling chart lines uncovering lies during a hard-boiled criminal interrogation. As suspects are questioned, the device checks for sweaty skin or racing hearts to root out deception, but the machine's accuracy has long been in dispute.

Nonetheless, the polygraph has a higher-than-ever profile. It's an ongoing bone of contention on Capitol Hill and a factor in recent spy investigations of FBI turncoat Robert Hanssen and physicist Wen Ho Lee. In the Lee case, the FBI's contention the physicist had lied on a polygraph test in 1998 led to 59 charges, all but one dropped in a plea bargain two years later. That sparked a request for a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report, due as soon as the first week of October, on the validity of the polygraph. Continue Reading This Article-->

Employment Law Guide
Employee Polygraph Protection Act of 1988 (EPPA) (29 USC §2001 et seq.; 29 CFR 801)

Who is Covered

The Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA) applies to most private employers. The law does not cover federal, state and local governments.

Basic Provisions/Requirements

The EPPA prohibits most private employers from using lie detector tests, either for pre-employment screening or during the course of employment.

Employers generally may not require or request any employee or job applicant to take a lie detector test, or discharge, discipline, or discriminate against an employee or job applicant for refusing to take a test or for exercising other rights under the Act.

Employers may not use or inquire about the results of a lie detector test or discharge or discriminate against an employee or job applicant on the basis of the results of a test, or for filing a complaint, or for participating in a proceeding under the Act.

Subject to restrictions, the Act permits polygraph (a type of lie detector) tests to be administered to certain job applicants of security service firms (armored car, alarm, and guard) and of pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors and dispensers. Continue Reading This Article-->

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