Applicants for the Customs and Border Protection agency keep admitting to ghastly crimes during polygraph tests

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/10/23/henhouse-foxes.html

2 Likes

Obviously someone who ADMITs to a crime probably isn’t suited for this job. That being said, isn’t the polygraph test complete BS?

2 Likes

Yes, and it was called out as such by Cory in the post.

6 Likes

I see this as the only possible way for the BS-ness of the Polygraph to finally be taken seriously: when it adversely affects the ability of “Fine People” to be given complete, abject, unaccountable, authority over captive victims travellers.

7 Likes

Even worse, this is “polygraph” being used:

10 Likes

“Listen, when CBP sends its people, they’re not sending their best.”

10 Likes

Meanwhile, prosecutors are encouraging CBP to continue screening more applicants. “Even if the polygraph results aren’t admissible in court, their freely-offered confessions are very useful to our prosecution efforts.”

9 Likes

Given that false confessions are a real thing, just how reliable are these confessions that the polygraphs are inducing? Hell, it’s even possible to get people to believe they committed crimes that they couldn’t have committed, so I’m extra wary of confessions in general.

3 Likes

I can’t wait to see this on police procedural shows.

“You got no evidence tying me to the Mendoza murder, cop. And this polygraph shit ain’t admissible in court.”

“Oh, no, you convinced us of that the last time we spoke. We were actually really impressed by you and we thought we’d offer you a job. The polygraph is just routine.”

“Oh, cool. Let’s do it.”

“First question: did you ever kill anyone?”

“Yes, his name was Diego Mendoza.”

6 Likes

Wow, racist asswipes applying to be paid on the government’s dime for harassing brown people and people with funny names aren’t paragons of humanity? I think I need to sit down from the shock. /s

3 Likes

Who knew law enforcement recruiting could be used as a honeypot to catch actual criminals? Sweet.

3 Likes

You think Trump’s America is going to be built by guys in white hats? This is entirely as planned.

Next up, Trump & Co. will claim it doesn’t matter, since any transgressions against non-citizens aren’t considered to be crimes.

In absolute fairness to the CBP, the only reason they were using a polygraph is because the staff phrenologist was on annual leave.

8 Likes

It really depends on how they’re doing the polygraphs. You get false memories by leading a subject on, and false confessions through pressure and manipulation. There’s no real reason why the CBP would push for false confessions. Given that they brought people who had prematurely confessed to a crime all the way to the polygraph stage, it seems more like they were looking for reason to ignore confessions, rather than force them.

… And… well… it’s CPB. I doubt that they are so determined to ferret out any wrongdoers in their ranks that their screening is so intensive as to induce false confessions.

1 Like

Yes, but the hats in question are rather large, and pointy.

5 Likes

I had to take a lie detector test when I was 16 just so I could be a bag boy at a Tom Thumb grocery store. Weird. Thing is, I am damn near phobic about the blood pressure cuff. I can barely stand to have it on long enough to even get a good clinical reading and, dear gawd sometimes they have to repeat it. Shudder. Well, you wear that fucking cuff for the entirety of the lie detector test. I was pretty much hallucinating long before it was over, but I did have presence of mind to realize that I could lie thru my teeth and it wouldn’t register. So I did. Passed, of course. I will never, EVAH go thru that torture again.

3 Likes

Isn’t this exactly why the repugnicans should embrace the democletian’s DADT policy? Together at last!

Well, if law enforcement raffles can be used to catch criminals, why not law enforcement job interviews?

1 Like

Exactly, but what’s interesting if you use law enforcement interviews as a trap, is that then we have the implied admission of what many of us have long suspected: law enforcement attracts criminals or those of a criminal disposition. And to take it a step further, we may be able to say that an application for a law enforcement position is a predictor of future crime, whether said application is successful or not. More study needs to be done.

1 Like