I failed a polygraph. There was a crime at a store, and my name came up when they searched through the ATM records. Police had ample evidence that I was in no way related to the crime, but kept trying to find something to pin on me because of the failed test. Those particular detectives had complete faith in the lie detector as a valid tool of police work.
Video evidence of me entering the store, using the atm, and immediately leaving the store? That was not evidence to them because I failed the polygraph.
I take an exceedingly dim view of any police department that uses a polygraph in any capacity. They've been proven time and time and time again to be worthless as a tool, but police still use them. The rough equivalent is using tarot cards as a tool for solving crimes.
There are many things in law enforcement that have either been proven to be worthless, near worthless or never been proven to be valid...
Eye Witness Testimony for example, aside from the fact the people are terrible at recall anyway and High Stress causes memory problems above and beyond the normal memory issues of the human mind, it is very very very easy to manipulate a victim either directly or indirectly to identify the "target" no necessarily the actual criminal
police "drug" dogs are another one, it is more or less a blank check to probable cause for a search.
Then there is one people never even question because it is the foundation of the legal system, the good old finger print... It always amazes me that with DNA it is always probabilistic, "1 in 4 billion people will have this same DNA" but with Finger Prints is an absolute, Match no match.. Call me crazy but I don't think that position is scientifically valid
