Magic
The search for truth is eternal. It
justifies the existence of great
universities, the publication of
innumerable tomes of philosophy
and religion and the launching of
fleets of ships, diving bells and
rockets to the perimeters of the
accessible universe.
Seeking truth in interpersonal
relationships, formal and informal,
has also been an important part of
human existence. Othello, great
Moorish prince, murdered his wife
Desdemona in a fit of passion
triggered by what he thought was the
truth. It wasn't, and, in a fit of guilt,
he murdered himself.
And so humans have sought to
uncover ways of ascertaining truths
that are not self-evident or
discernable by scientific means. In
Rome, there stands a wall with a
large opening that is supposed to
chop off the hand of someone who
tells a lie while holding his or her
hand in the opening. Torture and
coercion were thought for a while to
produce unshakeable evidence, a
notion thoroughly dismissed in
modern days in deference to notions
of due process and restraints against
self-incrimination.
Fantasy has sought sure
indicators of truth in a less brutal
fashion. Show White's evil
stepmother had her "mirror, mirror
on the wall," while poor Pinocchio
had to live with an elongated nose
whenever he strayed from veracity.
Children enforce truth-telling with
incantations like "cross your heart
and hope to die" if you lie.
But the modern age is too
sophisticated for torture, magic
devices or childlike promises.
Instead, we have turned to
technology for the answers.
Scientists still work on truth serums
of spy-thriller fame, but most of
society relies upon a handy device
called the polygraph.
Most of us simply call it a lie
detector.
When operated by a fully
qualified and experienced person,
the lie detector can provide insights
Cole C. Campbell
Editor
latig
Star nnl
83rd Year of Editorial Freedom
Continued from page 1
McKissick and Lee were also hindered by
the limited law training they received at the
black North Carolina College (now North
Carolina Central University), from which
they transferred.
Prior to integration, the state, holding the
position that separate facilities were equal,
considered the law school at North Carolina
College equal to the UNC law school.
The U.S. District Court in Greensboro
had agreed with the state when it denied
blacks access to UNC in October 4950.
But Lee, who spent three months at NCC,
said there was no comparison between the
law schools of North Carolina College and
UNC: "One was a law school and one
wasn't." The NCC law school contained two
classrooms, a small library, and the books
were of no use, he said.
Attending the UNC law school was "much
of the difference between success and
failure," Lee said.
After the lower court ruling, the students
and their attorney, now Supreme Court
Justice Thurgood Marshall, appealed the
case to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in
Richmond, Va. The appellate court
overturned the lower court decision and
ordered that the blacks be admitted.
Following a Board of Trustees Executive '
Committee recommendation that blacks be
admitted to white graduate and professional
schools when the courses they needed were ,
not offered by a black college, the court ruled
f.londay, February 2, 1976
mirrors
into the near-truth of particular
statements. How accurate the
polygraph is is under much dispute.
Depending upon the personality of
the subject and the ability of the
operator, a polygraph examination
can produce results of highly
variable accuracy.
If accuracy were the only
question, the polygraph would face
a large number of critics. But
privacy, dignity and the right not to
incriminate oneself are also at the
heart of criticisms of use of
polygraphs. In federal courts, for
example, polygraph examinations
cannot be introduced into evidence
without the consent of the subject of
the test. The American Civil
Liberties Union and the crusty civil
libertarian Sam Ervin have actively
opposed the machine on the grounds -that
it violates the Fifth Amendment
and the sanctity of individual
privacy.
In light of critical comment, one
would hope that use of polygraphs is
strictly overseen by responsible
agencies and rarely employed except
in matters of extreme importance. In
fact, such is not the case.
Commercial examiners will conduct
examinations for any business or
industry and are subject to flimsy
licensing regulations.
In North Carolina, for example,
an examiner need only be a high
school graduate and attend an
approved six to eight week training
course. Yet in that short period of
time he or she is expected to digest
nuances of psychology, physiology,
criminology and other disciplines
bearing on the interpretation of
polygraph results. A six week crash
course on top of high school
education is hardly an assurance of
skill in interpretation.
Yet people lose jobs because of
polygraphs. Some face criminal
action against them because of
polygraphs. We cannot alloys this to
happen without proper protection.
It is time to reconsider laws and
practices concerning polygraphs
until accuracy can be assured and
threats to individual liberty be
minimized.
Greg Porter
Managing Editor
Joyce Fitzpatrick
Associate Editor
Art Eisenstadt
News Editor
George Bacso
Features Editor
Susan Shackelford
Sports Editor
Jim Roberts
Public Affairs Editor
Charles Hardy
Photography Editor
that NCC law school facilities were not equal
to those of the University law school. ;
The University Board of Trustees then
appealed the case to the Supreme Court,
which refused in June I95l to grant
certiorari, upholding the lower court
decision.
The case had to be appealed to the high
court, then-Chancellor House said recently.
"It couldn't have been done any other way,"
he said. "We had to go through with it.
Otherwise people would have said we gave in
too early."
At the time of the court suits, House
opposed integration on what he considered
"honest grounds," believing the two races
should be separate.
"I was much more opposed (to
integration) then than I am now," he added.
"1 was looking out for what 1 thought the
people thought."
While House agreed with the University
administration's opposition to integration,
he did not agree with attempts to discourage
North Carolina College students from
applying to the University. ,
According to House, then Consolidated
University President Gordon Grey sent him
and another University administrator to
NCC to dissuade the black students from
attending UNC.
"I told them frankly that I was an honest
segregationist, that 1 didn't want colored
people here at the University, and that 1
didn't think it was good for education to mix
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by ALAN MURRAY
The machine don't leSl me if it's a little lie
or a big lie. All I can say is if they're lying.
David Shaffer
On a Saturday morning last August, the
owner of a local restaurant opened his shop
to discover that his cash register was empty.
No windows had been broken, no locks
tampered with. But the $300 in operating
change that had filled the register at closing
time the previous night was gone.
The owner and the Chapel Hill police
quickly concluded that it was an inside job.
Someone with a key (keys were abundant
and easily copied) had entered during the
night and taken the money.
The owner was frantic. This was the
second time within a month that his register
had been cleaned out during the night, and
his profits were falling fast. No answers were
provided by the Chapel Hill police, but one
of the detectives offered a suggestion. He
advised that lie-detector tests be given to all
the employees who had worked the night of
the theft. And, to do the job, he
recommended David Shaffer, a former
Chapel Hill policeman turned private
detective.
The restaurant owner didn't know much
about lie-detectors, and was hesitant to
subject his employees to the test. But he saw
no alternative. He couldn't afford to allow
the thefts to continue. And besides, he felt
that the tests might at least encourage his
employees to be more conscientious. So, for
a price that was slightly less than the amount
stolen from the register, he arranged for
Shaffer to drive over from Raleigh and
administer the tests to the employees.
Bob was the second employee to be tested.
Like most of the others, he was a student,
working only part time at the restaurant. He
was not working on a regular schedule, but
as a substitute at the times when extra help
was needed. He had worked on the nights of
both thefts.
Bob had previously been fired from a job
at the Pine Room for pouring food coloring
in the orange juice. Other than that, his
employment record was clean. He had been
working at the restaurant now for almost
two years.
Shaffer asked Scott to sign a consent
statement that said he was willing to be
tested, and that he was not taking the test "as
a condition of employment or of continued
employment." The restaurant owner,
however, was never shown this statement,
and Bob felt certain he would be Fired if he
refused to be tested.
Shaffer explained to Bob how the
instrument worked. He also went over the
questions that would be asked during the
examination.
Bob was intrigued by the machine, but not
by its operator. He thought Shaffer was
condescending, intimidating and accusing.
At First Bob distorted the polygraph readings
by tensing his arm muscles. Shaffer
threatened him, saying it would cost $700 16
get the machine fixed if he broke it.
When Shaffer asked "Are you certain that
1 will not ask you any questions I didn't
mention in the pre-test interview," Bob
truthfully replied "no." Shaffer, apparently
feeling his own honesty had been called into
question, angrily cut off the polygraph and
asked Bob if he wanted to reconsider that
answer. Bob said, again quite truthfully, that
he didn't trust Shaffer and had no way of
knowing what questions would be asked.
Shaffer stomached his anger and continued
the test.
The session lasted for about 45 minutes,
with questions focusing on the theft and on
Bob's background. No "personal" questions
were asked ("Personal" was . defined by
Shaffer as including sex, religion and
politics).
During the test, Bob admitted to stealing
socks from Woollen Gym, and two jock
straps from a drug store when he was 17, but
he denied having anything to do with the
stolen money.
The other employees were all tested in a
simitar manner and allowed to leave.
The restaurant owner got a call from
Shaffer some time after the examinations
had been given. Shaffer said he wanted to re
examine Bob, and, several days later, Bob
was taken to Raleigh for another test.
The conclusion of the written report which
the store owner received after this second test
was somewhat vague: "It is the opinion of the
examiner that this subject was untruthful
during his tests."
the races," he said.
But Grey, contacted last week in Florida,
said he could not recall sending anyone to
NCC for persuasion purposes.
Grey, 66, and now board chairperson of
Senate Communications in Winston-Salem,
said he had opposed the desegregation
attempts only because of trustee policy.
"Had there been no litigation, I would
have urged the trustees to admit black
students," he said.
But at an April 1951 trustees meeting,
Grey had said, "Insofar as the state provides
separate facilities for Negroes, I am opposed
to taking Negroes into graduate school of
state-supported institutions."
The integration controversy did not end
with theadmission of five lawstudents. After
1951 the University admitted blacks to the
graduate and professional schools, but it
refused admission to three black high school
students from Durham in May 1955.
However, in September 1955, a special
three-judge federal court ordered the Chapel
Hill campus to process undergraduate
admission requests "without regard to race
and color."
The years following the admission of the
first black undergraduates were relatively
quiet.
The first instances of racial strife in the
area began in 1963. Most involved sit-ins and
protests against segregation in public
-accomodations, which resulted in 1,400
arrests from December 1963 to December
polygr
Over the telephone, however, Shaffer was
. unequivocal. "That's your man," he told the
owner.
The restaurant owner was a little
disturbed by the vagueness of the written
report. He also wondered why, if Shaffer was
so certain, there was need for a second test.
Or, for that matter, why Shaffer needed to
test anyone else after testing Bob. But he felt
extremely nervous and uncomfortable
having Bob work in the restaurant.
A few weeks later, the restaurant owner,
while adding up the day's receipts, found
that he was $40 short. He immediately
notified Bob that he never wanted him to
work again.
There is no lie-detector, machine or man.
House Committee on Government
Operations
The debate over the use of polygraphs has
been going on since 1921 when John Larson
tested his primitive instrument on criminal
subjects. Two questions have been the focus
of this debate: How accurate is the
polygraph? Does its use constitute an
invasion of the individual's right to privacy?
The first question has been answered
indecisively by the admission of
polygraphed as well as their critics that the
relative accuracy of the polygraph method
depends on the skill of the examiner.
The second question has found no answers
at all. The minimal regulation of the use of
polygraphs in most states, and the total lack
of regulation in some, indicates that most
legislators don't see the polygraph as a
violation of individual rights. But many
people and organizations, including former
Senator Sam Ervin and the American Civil
Liberties Union see the polygraph as a threat
to personal freedom.
The courts have taken a firm stand by
declaring the results of polygraph tests
inadmissable as evidence, except when the
prosecution, defense and judge all agree
beforehand to allow it. Other government
agencies have drawn up guidelines with
varying degrees of rigidity to govern the use
of polygraphs within each agency.
But as high level debates continue, the use
of polygraphs in the private sector
proliferates. Although the so-called lie
detector conjures visions of Orwell's 1984 in
the public mind, there is, as always, an idol
that cries louder than personal freedom:
money.
An estimated billion dollars is lost by
businesses through theft each year. The vast
majority of this loss is due to employee
pilfering. As a result, employers have
become increasingly interested in using lie
detectors to control employee theft.
According to Lee Heinrich, director of the
North Carolina Polygraph Services, Inc., the
use of polygraphs in North Carolina has
almost doubled in the past two years.
Heinrich's company has been in business
since April 1974, and has serviced several
Lie detector: man or
In California, a young woman working for
a chain food store was charged with
defrauding her employer and was forced to
undergo a lie detector test. She was fired
mn
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1964. The . UNC Student Legislature
supported the protestors with a bill urging a
boycott of segregated establishments in the
area.
J. Carlyle Sitterson, now resigned from
the chancellor's seat and a Kenan Professor
of History, remembered his tenure (1966-72)
as an era of transition.
"It was quite different...the state of mind
was different from today," he said. "When
you made a statement on a complex matter,
they would pick out of it that part that
appealed to them and, oppositely, distressed
them."
At the beginning of his term (1966),
Sitterson said, many were concerned that the
whole integration process was not taking
place as it should, although most agreed that
it was a desirable goal.
Sitterson said the black leadership may
have frequently overstated black sentiment
concerning desegregation. "Some would
have wanted it (separatism), but 1 am by no
means sure that reflected the wishes of
everybody else," he said.
"The question was," he said, "did they
really want to become a part of the
mainstream of campus life, without regard
to race.. .or did they want a black community
within the larger University?"
In October, 1967 a program to recruit
black undergraduates was proposed by Phil
Clay, former chairperson of the campus
NAACP chapter. The Student Legislature
granted the program a $820 appropriation in
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businesses in Chapel Hill, including
Fowler's, Gordon's Jewelers, Radio Shack
and the Pantry.
The requirements to obtain a polygraph
examiner's license in North Carolina are
minimal: the examiner must be a high school
graduate; if he has been in the service, he
must have an honorable discharge; he must
not be guilty of any past felonies; and he
must be the graduate of a polygraph school
approved by the American Polygraph
Association. These schools generally last for
six to eight weeks. Students learn a
smattering of psychology and physiology
and learn about operating and interpreting
the instrument.
Even Heinrich feels that these regulations
are not strict enough. She believes all
examiners should be college graduates (as
are all the examiners at North Carolina
Polygraph Services), that they should have
majored in a field related to polygraphy
(such as psychology or physiology) and that
they be required to serve an internship for a
period before they are licensed.
There are no laws in North Carolina
regulating the type of questions that may be
asked on a polygraph exam. Thus, NCPS
may and does occasionally give tests to
engaged couples and married couples to
verify their faithfulness to their fiancee or
spouse. And they may ask in a pre
employment test if a person has ever been
arrested, even though these arrests did not
when she scored unsatisfactorily on this
question: "Did you check out items to your
mother at a discount?"
Later investigation revealed that her
mother had died several years past and the
question had evoked an emotional response.
The polygraph examiner read this response
as deception.
Lie detector is the common misnomer for
what is more precisely known as a
polygraph. It does not detect lies. What it
does is measure respiration, blood pressure
and skin resistance, and record any changes
in these on a graph.
While these physiological changes often
accompany the act of lying, they do not
mean necessarily that a lie has been told.
The polygraph is an instrument, not a
machine. It takes readings, but it does no
work. Like the tools of a doctor or a
mechanic, it is valuable only if used correctly
and interpreted properly.
The polygraph technique exploits the
subject's fear of being detected and his guilt
for having done wrong. Fortunately for
polygraph operators, most subjects are
afraid of being detected, and do feel guilty
about their wrongdoing.
Polygraph examiners have devised
various questioning techniques to insure that
the responses recorded on the polygraph do
in fact indicate deception. The two most
common techniques are the known lie
November.
Sitterson said the recruitment program,
run mainly by students, helped produce a
terrific boost in black enrollment.
"I said, yes, we must make the University
known to the black community so that the
qualified people will think of coming here,"
he said.
But, he added, "I was at that time and am
still opposed to lowering University
admission requirements in order to meet
some of those needs."
The Black Student Movement (BSM) was
born in November 1967, largely, its leaders
were quoted as saying, because of
dissatisfaction with the NAACP.
Initial objectives listed by the BSM
included a full-credit Negro history course.
Student Legislature funding, seats in the
legislature and more black faculty members.
Black demonstrations on Feb. 15-16, 1968
were incited by the deaths of three blacks in
Orangeburg, S.C.
Then tension flared on campus following
the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King
on April 6, 1968. On the day of King's
funeral, April 9, black students and faculty
boycotted classes; Sitterson proclaimed a
half-day recess for the University; and many
downtown businesses closed for the day.
On May 13, 1968 Chapel Hill aldermen
made history with the state's first open
housing ordinance.
Black student leaders presented Sitterson
with a list of 23 demands in November 1968.
discrimination
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result in charge or conviction, and therefore
don't appear on his record.
The majority of the tests given by NCPS
are employee checks. The company has three?
options which an employer can take
advantage of. Pre-employment tests check
over the background of a job applicant to be,
sure he doesn't have a history of theft, drug
usage or whatever other habits the employer
is interested in (NCPS has a policy, however,:
of not asking questions about sex on pre-::
employment tests). Periodic checks give the
employer an opportunity to check for
grazing, small thefts such as taking food;
without paying for it or giving merchandise:
to friends. Specific checks are used when the
employer has a larger theft and wants to -know
who's responsible. ::
NCPS is one of three private polygraph -agencies
in Raleigh. The others are Franklin
Security, and Shaffer's Detective Agency.
Shaffer is a high school graduate, and
attended school for one year in Chapel HihV
He was in law enforcement for 16 years. He"
left the Chapel Hill Police Department two
years ago and went to a six week polygraph ;
school, bought a polygraph and set up shop..-;
Like NCPS, he gives pre-employment,
periodic and specific tests for employers. He -'
now does a considerable business, and has
done work for the Carolina Coffee shop.
"I ain't the type to do any braggin',"
Shaffer tells prospective customers, "but I've
had excellent results."
machine
method and the relevant-irrelevant method.
In both methods, the examiner asks a series
of carefully prepared and worded questions
to learn how the person responds.
Polygraphy is an art, and there are many
factors that can cause a subject to give a
polygraph reading that may be interpreted
improperly. Below is a list taken from the
book Truth and Deception by John Reid
the director of a polygraph school in
Chicago, and Fred Inbau.
Lack of concern over the possibility of
detection If the subject has no real fear of
being detected, the polygraph may fail to
detect any of the physiological changes that
usually accompany deception.
Extreme nervousness, overan.xietv, and
anger These emotions may lead to a graph
that cannot be interpreted properly.
Concern over neglect or responsibility If
a person has guilt feelings associated with a
certain event, he may give a reading that can
be interpreted as deceptive when questioned
about this event.
Involvement in other similar acts or
offenses This may also lead to guilt feelings
where there is no guilt involved, and could
lead to a faulty interpretation of deception.
Physical discomfort during test - May
lead to confusing graph readings.
Excessive interrogation before the test
Can incite guilt feelings and cause the subject
to respond as if he's being deceptive.
Chief among them were demands for black
admissions to be based less on SAT scores, a
demand for more black athletes, more
financial aid and an Afro-American studies
curriculum.
Sitterson responded by saying the
University "cannot provide unique
treatment for any race."
Two food worker's strikes in 1969
attacked, respectively, low wages and lack of
unionization.
Up to 140, mostly black, workers left their
jobs at the campus food facilities Feb. 23,
closing three of them. The Lenoir Hall
dining room closed March 4 and opened
again two days later with 40 riot-equipped
state troopers at the doors. Some 300 people
picketed the hall that day.
Gov. Robert Scott ended the strike in late
March with an order that all state employees
receive a minimum wage of $1.80 per hour.
University Food Director George Prillaman
was assigned to other duties and the
University gave up its operation to SAGA
Food Services, but the reprieve was short.
In November the workers walked out
again, this time more than 300. A vote was
overwhelmingly in favor of unionization and
the workers returned to work in mid
December. Tomorrow: A look at the University
administration's policies toward blacks with
respect to admissions. Affirmative Action
and black studies. Are blacks afforded
treatment equal to that of white students?