WASHINGTON— The American Foreign Service Association, which represents U.S. diplomats, is opposing the use of lie detectors on government employees, saying the machines find “one third of all honest people liars.”
The association’s protest came in response to President’s Reagan’s signing an executive order requiring U.S. employees involved with national security information to take polygraph test, if requested.
Some 4,000 State Department employees would be affected, many of them members of AFSA, which represents them in their delaine with the State Department.
The association said there is convincing evidence polygraphs are accurate in only two thirds of the cases, at most. “The careers of public servants should not depend on the results of a machine that classifies one third of all honest people as liars, but fails to reliably detect real liars.” the group said.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 27, 1985
