AINSWORTH Shakes, director of the Vetting and Polygraph Unit at the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA), says polygraphs administered by its examiners in recent times to public sector job aspirants in the 19-to-35 years age cohort has seen a number disclosing their involvement in cybercrime and lottery scamming.

A polygraph, otherwise known as a lie detector test, is a device or procedure that measures and records physiological indicators such as blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity while a person answers a series of questions. The thinking is that these physiological responses can indicate whether a person is lying or not.

MOCA, a state law enforcement entity, only responds to requests from public sector bodies, including law enforcement bodies.

Speaking with the Jamaica Observer on Wednesday, Shakes, who bemoaned the fact that lie detector test results are not admissible in Jamaican courts, said, “we have been looking closely at the new phenomenon, lottery scamming, we are also looking at cyber-related crimes such as scamming online and so on — those are the two latest trends we have seen.

“The majority of times where there are issues in the polygraph examination, where persons might self-disclose about illegal activities, it is mostly along the lines of lottery scamming, or cybercrimes, or sometimes drug-related activities,” said Shakes.

Shakes, who said the unit has over a decade’s worth of data since its inception, noted that while the disclosures about drug-related activities are “sometimes negligible, in terms of cybercrimes and lottery scamming we are seeing that featuring a whole lot”.

The unit director said such disclosures have been a trigger for investigations by MOCA.

“We definitely have [started investigations]. There are times when we call in the local police to assist us with certain findings or to get more clarity around certain matters, or we do it ourselves,” Shakes told the Observer.

He, in the meantime, lamented what he views as underutilisation of the tool in criminal prosecutions here, noting that trained Jamaican examiners have used their expertise in other parts of the Caribbean to assist court trials.

“The challenge we have been having with that is that, based on Jamaica’s criminal justice system, we have not reached the stage yet where we are fully understanding the utility of polygraphs where criminal cases are concerned because there is this general narrative, whenever we try to provide some clarity around the utility of polygraphs in these cases there is a general narrative that polygraphs are not admissible in court,” Shakes said.

“But we have actually assisted eastern Caribbean states with polygraphing law enforcement members. And we have had more than one situation where persons volunteered for the examination, they came in the room, they confessed, persons were arrested and charged, they were placed before the court, and they were found guilty,” he told the Observer.

“Unfortunately, in the Jamaican landscape we have not graduated to that stage as yet. We have not fully utilised the polygraph in the criminal justice sphere as much as we could. I have [also] done polygraph examinations in eastern Caribbean states and got confessions from police officers who were subsequently brought before the courts and pleaded guilty out of a polygraph examination. I know other cases of colleagues in the eastern Caribbean who utilised polygraphs and it assisted court cases,” Shakes continued.

In noting that “not much discussion is generated around the conversation between examiner and the examinee and what confession might be made”, Shakes said, “everything we do in the polygraph suite is audio and video recorded, so if the examiner is given a confession it would then be validated by the recording. The conversation is not where it should be as yet”.

Shakes, who noted that MOCA is yet to receive any vetting requests for prospective employees of agencies tasked with the care of children or the vulnerable said, “there is a lot of utility value for polygraphs. It is a very potent tool…but is underutilised”.

MOCA on Wednesday launched the second staging of its Polygraph Examiners Course at National Police College in Twickenham Park, St Catherine. The 10-week course will run from January 22 to March 29, with 12 new polygraph examiners from both local and regional law enforcement agencies being trained at the facility.

Colonel Desmond Edwards, director general of MOCA, speaking at the launch, said: “Integrity assurance is a critical component of MOCA’s operational ethos, and over the years the agency has sought to increase its complement of polygraph examiners to meet the ever-growing demand for these services.” He added that, “the MOCA vetting and polygraph team has been very busy in recent years, [with] current trends indicating that there will be further demands on our vetting and polygraph services”.

MOCA’s Polygraph and Vetting Unit, since its establishment in 2014, has conducted more than 11,000 screenings. Currently, the unit conducts vetting services for potential recruits of Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA), Jamaica Customs Agency (JCA), as well as several ministries and government agencies. This service has also been extended to regional law enforcement partners, including Royal Saint Lucia Police Force, Royal Montserrat Police Service, as well as the police forces of Grenada, St Kitts & Nevis, and Turks & Caicos.