Greenville Polygraph Testing

At Upstate Private Investigators, we work with clients coming from all walks of life, individuals as well as businesses and various organizations. You should always take the protection of your business or of your family one of your first and foremost priorities. This means you have to get to know everyone around you. Polygraph testing is a great method to investigate suspicious people or shady circumstances. Here are a few situations when Greenville polygraph testing could prove to help:

Table of Contents

How Does Polygraph Testing Work?

The polygraph testing consists of connecting the individual to a special polygraph machine. This equipment measures a series of vital functions such as the heart rate, the strength of the heart beating, the blood pressure changes, the breathing pattern changes, and the activity of the sweat glands in the skin (also known as galvanic skin response).

It’s a well-known fact that many subjects get nervous when undergoing a polygraph test. The good news is that this condition doesn’t alter the results of the test. The equipment monitors all major changes occurring when the subject is asked certain questions. Whenever the subject tells a lie, their sympathetic nervous system sends an automatic response. This triggers measurable changes in the vital processes that occur in the body of the tested subject.

How Much Time Does it Take to Perform a Polygraph Exam?

Most polygraph tests take about 90 minutes, although this duration may vary from one case to another. Should the subject need to answer too many questions to fit into this time frame, a second test may be required. As a general rule, this results in more time needing to be assigned to the test, as well as in higher costs. Even healthy individuals have a limited ability to sit for polygraph exams before their answers fail to generate conclusive results. This is why it’s best to schedule a second test whenever the number of questions calls for it.

Can Polygraph Tests be Cheated?

The sympathetic nervous system is part of the autonomic nervous system. This means that it fires up automatically, without the subject being aware of it. Since the polygraph device measures these involuntary changes, it provides fairly accurate results.

To gain a better understanding of how automatic body processes work, think about the fact that your heart keeps beating even when you are asleep. This beating is beyond the control of your conscious mind. While conscious thought can influence such systems to a certain extent, any attempts of an individual to cheat the polygraph test are almost instantly caught by the technician conducting the exam. Polygraph examiners receive specific training to detect any such cheating attempts. Even though in theory one could cheat the polygraph, practice shows that such chances are extremely slight. The verified accuracy rates of most polygraph test is up to 95%.

Greenville polygraph testing being run on a man for a criminal defense case.

There are drugs and medications that can interfere with the polygraph test results. Nevertheless, it’s worth mentioning here that changes triggered by drugs will mainly result in inconclusive test results. The odds of masking a lie with the help of such substances are next to zero.

Do Courts Accept Polygraph Test Results?

As not all courts are the same, it is difficult to state that a polygraph test can be used in court. In some situations, certain courts allowed some of these tests, while others refused to use them in cases. One of the major reasons why polygraph tests aren’t used as evidence in court is that they may influence the members of the jury by making them overlook other pieces of evidence. Rather than being presented in court, polygraph tests are used during the negotiations that occur before the trial begins. They may also be presented after a trial ends, when someone’s been convicted.

Greenville Polygraph Testing Infographic

For Attorneys: Understanding How Polygraph Tests Can Help Your Clients

The best attorneys make use of everything they can to build their cases, whether they handle civil or criminal cases. Polygraph tests can work very well to corroborate facts or evidence that’s impossible to confirm by other means. Other possible uses of polygraph exams are to check on the reliability of someone’s memory or to see whether someone is honest when making certain statements.

Polygraph test results can prove to be extremely valuable during appeals. They can help you persuade your audience when you argue for a new trial.

Forensic polygraph tests of both witnesses and suspects can help to mount a strong defense in a criminal case. If the prosecutor offers your client the opportunity to take a polygraph test, you should only agree to it if you are absolutely confident that your client can pass this test. A polygraph testing can help you predict how well your client will behave during a trial or during a public speech about their case.

All of our examiners here have graduated from APA accredited schools. They are members of various polygraph-related professional organizations and associations. We only hire examiners who have obtained their bachelor’s degrees from approved universities. Our polygraph examiners also participate in courses and other continuing education training for improving their interrogation and interviewing skills, as well as their ability to analyze statements and to draw conclusions.

Can Polygraph Exams Be Used On People Under The Age Of 18?

Polygraph exams can be conducted on subjects under the age of 18. Nevertheless, in such situations, the child’s parent or legal guardian has to provide their consent in writing before the examiner can proceed with the testing. When it comes to subjects under the age of 12, polygraph examiners refuse to run tests in the wide majority of cases.

Contact Upstate Private Investigators To Learn More About Greenville Polygraph Testing

Polygraph test results can help dealing with situations when reaching a conclusive answer based on evidence isn’t possible. Such situations include but aren’t limited to spousal cheating, workplace theft, and deception detection. As such decisions could impact the rest of your life, gathering as many facts as possible is extremely important. Polygraph exams can shed light on such matters, particularly when they are performed by our expert private investigators in Greenville. Such tests can provide you with the answers you need, in a fast and reliable manner.

If you need to know more about our services and about the ways we can help you protect your family or your business, do not hesitate to reach out to our investigators.

TESTIMONIALS
Reid Latham
Easy to talk with and does a great job! Very discreet and a pleasure to work with. They know what to do and how to do and when to do it.
Jesse McGeE
10 out of 10 great people and very professional. 5 stars all the way.
James Martin
From my experience of knowing the Hawkins family. If you want professional service and dependability try Upstate Private Investigators.
FREE CONSULTATION
CONTACT US TODAY