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A day on the job

STEVE EDWARD GEORGE: 58 Forensic Psychophysiologist, Accurate Polygraph, 7754 66th St. N, Pinellas Park

By ELLEN MOSES
Published August 3, 2005

How long have you been doing this?

Full-time since about January.

What is your professional background?

I worked in software engineering for over 30 years. I did software development for large, mainframe business systems.

What is your educational background?

I have an associate's degree in data processing from St. Petersburg Junior College and bachelor's degrees in both accounting and economics from the University of South Florida.

How did you go from software developer to polygraph examiner?

I belong to Egypt Shrine in Tampa where I met a fellow Shriner who was a polygraph examiner, specializing in sex offenders on parole... . Over the years I've become really interested in psychology and the interest was rekindled by this fellow Shriner.

What kind of training is required for this job?

The training is 10 weeks, which is very intensive. And then you're on an intern status, which I am now, with the American Polygraph Association for two years, or until you've completed at least 200 polygraph examinations.

Where did you go for training?

I checked around and found an academy, the Academy of Polygraph Science (in Largo), which worked out well because I didn't have to leave the area. Also, to be a psychophysiologist requires a post-graduate education. You have to have a BS or a BA degree from an accredited college first. There is also a background check you have to be able to pass for an absence of criminal conduct. And most of the schools give polygraph examinations of their applicants to ensure that we have moral turpitude.

Who takes a polygraph?

Lawyers might send their client to me to determine whether they are truly innocent of the crime that they are accused of. Employers offer employees the opportunity to take a polygraph for employment or investigative reasons. Any individual who feels they have been wrongfully accused and wants to clear their name. Typically, guilty people don't take polygraphs if they're smart. Generally, it's the truthful, honest person who wants to demonstrate or validate the veracity of their claim.

What conditions do you measure during a polygraph exam?

The physiological functions that we measure are the abdominal breathing, the thorax breathing. ... Also, we measure what's called galvanic skin response, or electro dermal activity - yes its sweat, or saline. And we measure the cardiac activity ... the blood flow and the pulse.

Why do you look at those things?

When a person experiences fear, the first thing they do (physiologically) is shut down; they'll freeze. In addition, you'll start to sweat... . And of course the heart rate and the breathing tend to increase in order to get more oxygen into the blood stream to get ready to fight or flee.

What happens in a polygraph exam?

There are three phases to the test. There's the pretest, which is where we tell them their rights and tell them that it's being videotaped. We also try to create what's called a psychological set, which means we create a mood in them of concern over lying, and create a fear of the various questions that we might be asking.

What happens in the second phase?

We go over all the questions that we are going to be asking the examinee before we actually ask them in the test. They are given an opportunity to think about them and to rehearse how they're going to answer. ... There are no surprise questions.

And in the third phase?

We ask a series of what we call "comparison" questions and "relevant" questions while observing and recording the physiological response.

How does this help you determine whether someone is lying?

Say the relevant question is, "Did you take any of this missing money?" and the answer is "No." Maybe their cardiac climbed a bit, and you see some fluctuation in breathing. Before and after that, you may have a comparison question that says, "Before this, did you ever take anything that didn't belong to you?" and this may have some reaction. But if the rise in the relevant question is greater, then we know their attention is directed toward that relevant question. It would be just the opposite if they were innocent.

How long does a polygraph exam last?

A good thorough exam will usually last about two hours, depending on the examiner.

Can you explain the meaning of the opinions issued following a polygraph?

We have three opinions that we can issue. We have DI, "deception indicated," which is for relevant questions only. NDI, is "no deception indicated." The third, which we all hate, is the "inconclusive," which happens more with the truthful individuals than it does with the deceptive individuals.

What is an inconclusive?

It's when the examinee's answers to the relevant and comparison questions are such that you can't really tell a difference in reactions. Our specialty is comparing one lie against another. An inconclusive means that there was no evidence that this person was being deceptive when answering the relevant questions.

How much does it cost to get a polygraph exam?

A typical examination for what we call specific issue, or a specific accusation, is $300. I charge $400 for domestic issues because there is a lot more complexity involved in that. People pay us to take the test, not for the results.

How many polygraph exams do you average per week?

Maybe one or two.

What is your favorite thing about doing this?

My favorite thing is when an individual is able to come in and clearly demonstrate nondeception, truthfulness. Because then I know that I've helped somebody verify their truthfulness and they are going to be able to then go back and improve their situation, whatever that is.

How much money do you make?

[Last modified August 3, 2005, 00:36:17]