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Lie detectors

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tiggerblue10 | 15:24 Fri 01st Aug 2008 | News
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Are these reliable? If so, can / should they be used by the police / law courts?
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They are not 100% reliable but are already being used in some sectors of the UK

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Sky-News-Arch ive/Article/20082851305822

Some people can fool a polygraph test, and wearing very uncomfortable shoes or underwear would be enough to render the test useless.
They are a useful indicator in some cases. Worse than useless for judicial use.
From Ethel's link:

...Harrow said 998 people had been assessed using the technology during a seven-month period and 119 were identified as "high risk".

Of those, 43 were found to have been paid incorrect benefit


So that's a 64% false positive rate and heaven knows what the false negative rate was!
Which is one of the reasons the evidence from lie detectors isn't allowed in court here in the U.S.

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