LIE DETECTOR'S AID TO INNOCENT FOUND ITS MOST VALUABLE WORK

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 204, 26 August 1940, Page 6

LIE DETECTOR'S AID TO INNOCENT FOUND ITS MOST VALUABLE WORK

The lie detector catches criminals, but its most valuable Avork is in freeing the innocent from suspicion, thereby mimimizing expensive investigations and cutting doAvn trial costs, declared the Chicago International City Managers' Association. . Fifteen American cities, seven States,, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation now use this modern robot detective. Besides using it to test crime suspects, police, use it to examine persons who have' knowledge of a crime and so might help in finding and convicting the criminal; in checking fictitious reports of robberies, made to cover lip defalcations; and in testing witnesses whose truthfulness is under suspicion . Police department applicants in Evanston, 111., and Wichita, Kan., are required to take a lie-detector test, as are also Civil Service applicants in East Cleveland. The Chicago Park District uses the machine in questioning policemcn charg ed Avith offences, or suspected of wrong-doing. The lie detector saved Michigaij 25,000 dollars in trial costs-alone during 1038, it is estimated by Lieut Harold Mulbar of the State Police. Of 253 persons test,ed in 1938, 1,29 Avere cleared. ()9 confessed and 35 ran records indicating guilt. Wichita, Kan., reports* that of 1551 people examined by the machine in 1938, 1103 Avere cleared, 221 confessed and 363 showed signs of lying.