With little fanfare, a growing number of major Jamaican firms are routinely using polygraph tests or lie detectors to help reduce theft or corruption in revenue-earning areas of their business.

Still a relatively new phenomenon in Jamaica, the rapid growth in demand for polygraph tests has spawned the Jamaica Polygraph Association (JPA), whose members count the police, airlines, hotels, banks, insurance companies, security companies, distribution firms, supermarkets, pharmacies, beauty shops and spas, among their clientele.

President of the JPA, Deryck Dwyer, said more than 150 Jamaican firms regularly use the services of the four practising members of the association. “It is really a job to protect the innocent and weed out people who don’t mean a company any good,” said Dwyer whose company, Global Integrity Services, was established in 2006.

Deme Otuokon, a graph examiner and owner of Bench Mark Polygraph, said he had done 450 tests in the two years since doing polygraph tests in Jamaica.

In an earlier interview with the Sunday Observer, Captain Basil Bewry, a forensic psycho-physiologist who trained in California, said he had applied lie detector tests to over 1,500 people in Jamaica in four years.

Bewry practises under the firm Forensic Polygraph and is one of the first to operate in Jamaica when he started in 1999. Captain Owen Stephenson, who retired recently, is regarded as the “grandfather” of polygraphing in Jamaica.

Polygraph tests use diagnostic equipment to detect whether someone is being truthful or untruthful. The polygraph examiner looks for changes in blood pressure, sweat, breathing, heart rate and body language over the three and sometimes four tests, which are then compared.

Supporters of the device swear by its accuracy, saying it is up to 95 per cent successful under optimum conditions, which include a competent examiner. They also argue that 70 per cent of people who lie to the examiner confess afterwards.

Responding to concerns that nervousness could cause one to fail a test, the industry insisted: “Nervousness will not skew the test; what the machine looks for is fear, as nervousness is constant, but fear appears at specific questions.”

Polygraph tests, now commonplace in the United States, are largely done under the quiet in Jamaica but grabbed the national spotlight in 2003 when then Police Commissioner Francis Forbes, clearly desperate to stem corruption in the constabulary, revealed plans to have ambitious cops seeking promotion to sensitive areas of the force, undergo integrity tests, including polygraph tests, prior to acceptance.

Forbes’ plan, at the time, seemingly won the approval of some police officers, lawyers and psychologists, although some, like the rights group Jamaicans For Justice, were sceptical about its use. Not all who are asked to do the tests are happy, with some people feeling they were under suspicion.

Polygraph tests have been particularly popular with the Jamaican hospitality industry, with nearly all the major hotels utilising it for random tests in the revenue areas of their resort operations.

Sandals Resorts, which recently introduced polygraph testing, said it served as a measure that benefited and protected both members of the team, as well as the organisation on a whole.

“This initiative has been embraced by Sandals’ managers who, through teamwork and open interaction with their team members, have ensured not only the smooth introduction of the procedure, but also the continued commitment of the team who are the integral part of their resort’s success,” said Rachel McLarty, Sandals’ director of communications.

McLarty said polygraph testing had been accepted as “a control procedure which protected both employees and employers”, adding: “Sandals Resorts continues its efforts to introduce best practice initiatives and tighten control mechanisms at resorts.”

McLarty made it clear that Sandals staff who were asked to do the tests were not under any suspicion, and managers were among those who were randomly selected.

Otuokon said the tourist industry hoped polygraph tests would help keep drug pushers out of the industry while protecting innocent staff. “When we go in to do a test, it is not that we suspect anyone,” he added, supporting McLarty.

The Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) successfully used polygraph tests when it discovered 13 of its expensive laptop computers were missing in 2003. Of seven persons who were run through the polygraph test, one was identified as the culprit. Following his confession, he and four people who bought the computers were arrested.

At the same time, a United Kingdom insurer was quoted as saying it had cut its car claims by 25 per cent since employing polygraphing.

Otuokon emphasised that failing a polygraph test did not mean automatic dismissal of the staff member. “It is usually an indication that more investigation needs to be done.”

Neither could anyone be forced to do the test, he added. In his experience, people who refused to do the test were usually pressured by colleagues anxious to clear their area of any suspicion.

“The view is that if you have nothing to hide, why refuse to do the test?” said Otuokon, noting that the rate of failure in Jamaica was about 30 per cent, with most of them being men.

A polygraph machine can cost up to US$5,000 and some examiners charge between US$150 and US$250 for a series of three tests.

Dwyer said demand for polygraph services had grown rapidly, triggering the decision to form an association in 2005, with affiliation to the American Polygraph Association, the world governing body for polygraph examiners.

But he said it was Parliament’s Joint Select Committee on the Plea Bargaining Bill that served as the catalyst for the examiners coming together. Graph examiners were particularly interested in the issue of verification of pleas.

The other members of the JPA are Joseph Dibbs of Polygraph Associates and Taryn Pickersgill who practises in Florida.

In their submission, they pointed to issues that surfaced in other jurisdictions, especially the United States where polygraph tests were most widely used and where plea bargaining was a standard part of their laws to reduce case loads.

In many instances of plea bargaining, the person was subjected to polygraph tests to determine the validity of the plea, they argued. In the end, even though the Director of Public Prosecutions admitted that polygraphing had some merit, the Bill was passed without its inclusion.

“We still hope to see polygraph tests become formalised and properly used in plea bargaining cases here, as part of the investigative process,” said Dwyer. “It would definitely help to move cases through the justice system.”

The JPA president said the association was also emphasising that only the best standards of polygraphing be used in Jamaica and, as a result, insisted that only graduates of recognised polygraphing schools would be accepted as members.