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HomeMy WebLinkAbout13 - Referral of Polygraph Issues to Civil Service BoardCITY OF NEWPORT BEACH AGENDA ITEM NO. 13 TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS QF T TY COUNCIL FROM: Homer L. Bludau, City Manager DATE: February 26, 2002 SUBJECT: Referral of Polygraph Issues Involved in the Hiring Process of Public Safety Employees to the Civil Service Commission for Review and Recommendations RECOMMENDATION: Refer the role of polygraph examination and polygraph examiners' experience levels in the hiring process for public safety employees to the Civil Service Commission for review. DISCUSSION: During the February 12th Council meeting, Councilman Bromberg ask the City Manager to place an item on this agenda regarding polygraph examination issues being forwarded to the Civil Service Commission for study. The Newport Beach Charter says one of the roles of the Civil Service Commission is to "...(b) act in an advisory capacity to the City Council on problems concerning personnel administration." After the review, the Civil Service Commission's recommendations will come to Council for your review, and possible action. Chief McDonell prepared the attached report, which addresses some of the issues raised by Councilman Bromberg regarding the current training and experience required for polygraph examiners. This is included to provide Council some sense of the issues which will be discussed by the Civil Service Commission. City Hall • 3300 Newport Boulevard • Post Office Box 1768 • Newport Beach, California 92659 -1768 City of Newport Beach Police Department February 26, 2002 To: Honorable Mayor, Members of the City Council and City Manager From: Bob McDonell, Chief of Police Subject: Pre - Employment Polygraph Examiner As you know, Council Member Bromberg has raised a number of questions about our use of polygraph examinations, in conjunction with the pre - employment process. Originally, the issue came to light based upon our polygraph service to the Fire Department as part of their recent hiring process. Council Member Bromberg believes an experience level for our operators should be established in order to protect the City from exposure to unnecessary liability. Although we have had some in -depth discussions on the issue in recent weeks, Council Member Bromberg has posed additional questions, which are addressed in the following responses: 1. Do we have a job description in place for an officer who also will do pre- employment polygraph exams? The position of "Polygraph Examiner' is an ancillary function that has been handled within the Police Department at both the Police Officer and Police Sergeant levels for the past 30+ years. At one time, this was handled exclusively within the Detective Division; however, that is not the case at this time. We currently have three experienced examiners: Sergeant Pete Perrin, currently assigned to the Traffic Division; Investigator Jerry Lowe, assigned to the Support Services Division; and Master Patrol Officer Rick Schulz, currently assigned to the Patrol Division. All three have experience doing pre - employment and criminal polygraphs. The ability to administer a polygraph is a "skill" and as such, does not require a "job description ". We have trained officers in a variety of "skills" that supplement their ability to perform their job. These skills include ultimately being designated as a fingerprint examiner, drug (influence) recognition expert, accident reconstruction expert, handwriting examiner, hostage negotiator, Special Weapons and Tactics Team member, and Defensive Tactics Instructor. Not one of these skills has a "job description'; however, each one requires extensive training and at some point, may require testimony in a court of law in support of those skill levels and expertise. Pre - Employment Polygraph Examiner February 26, 2002 Page 2 of 4 The true ability of a polygraph examiner in either a pre - employment setting or a criminal setting is based upon one's ability to interview or interrogate a subject. That ability is a skill we nurture in every police officer as it is used daily. By using a skilled police investigator, we have a distinct advantage over using someone from the private sector, who may be lacking this background. Whenever we have selected someone to receive training as a polygraph examiner, we have selected someone with investigative experience who has demonstrated his or her ability as a skilled interviewer. This person is then sent to a thorough training course that lasts for seven weeks and involves over 320 hours of instruction in the following areas: • Instrument Operation • History and Development • Psychological and Physiological Issues • Test Question Formulation • Examination Techniques • Chart Analysis • Interviewing Procedures • Examination Notepack Usage • Development of Student Skills • Legal Issues • Examiner Ethics • Student Performance Evaluation When the investigator successfully completes the training course, the training process does not end there. The individual is assigned to an experienced examiner to continue the training process and to evaluate his /her skills as the examinations are conducted. The bottom line is that each and every chart produced during an examination is reviewed and critiqued by a more experienced examiner. Some charts are also sent out to a third party examiner (currently the San Bernardino Sheriffs Department as part of a reciprocal agreement), for review and verification of the findings when our operators want a third party opinion of our conclusions. In addition, we continue to send our examiners to training updates and conferences to ensure they are kept up to date on their skills. We have the added advantage of having Sergeant Pete Perrin oversee our polygraph program, and he reviews all of the charts from our operators as part of that oversight. Not only is he a well- regarded police officer and supervisor, but he is also the current President of the California Association of Polygraph Examiners (the largest Statewide organization of polygraphists in the United States). He has been a polygraph examiner since 1986, and he is a 25 -year veteran who has an extensive history of doing pre- employment and criminal polygraphs for our Department and continues to assist in that area. Pete also conducts pre - employment polygraphs for the Huntington Beach Police Department and the Orange County Sheriffs Department. As an aside, Sergeant Perrin was awarded the Department's Award of Merit for responding to the specific request for Pre - Employment Polygraph Examiner February 26, 2002 Page 3 of 4 his assistance from the Orange County Sheriffs Department with a polygraph examination on a difficult homicide case, obtaining valuable information for them as part of their investigation. Sergeant Perrin is a recognized expert in his field and we have the utmost confidence in his ability to oversee our program and ensure the quality of even our newest examiners. In summary, to address the specific question regarding the need to have a "job description" for the ancillary "skill" of performing polygraph examinations, it would be inappropriate to single out this particular skill and designate it as an employee classification. The polygraph is just an investigative tool that assists an investigator during the background process and in and of itself, does not determine whether or not a candidate is hired. If such a skill were to require a separate "job description ", it would leave open the question as to why other equally important "skills" didn't require one as well. Such a requirement would not serve the interests of the Department and our overall mission on behalf of the Community. It would also not be consistent with the practice we have followed for the last 30 years, which has never, to my knowledge or that of our staff, resulted in any adverse action in terms of liability exposure to the City. 2. Do we have a policy in place relative to experience prerequisites of our examiners that will be involved in pre - employment interviews? A policy that establishes prerequisites or sets a minimum level of experience before practicing a "skill" would be detrimental to this organization and sets an unwarranted precedent for other skills for which we train our officers. As with any such skill, we establish the proper foundation by providing the best training possible that ensures proficiency in the skill upon completion of that training. We also provide oversight as that skill is performed to not only ensure competence, but to ensure that standards are maintained. The "experience level" of an examiner is not a guarantee of competence. If the proper foundation was not laid and there was no oversight, one can still have an examiner with a high level of experience doing questionable work. We have officers who have been trained in latent fingerprint identification who have undergone a very similar process. They receive extensive training in fingerprint identification through the Department of Justice and the FBI. Upon completion of that training, they have the skills to competently conduct fingerprint comparisons and testify in court as to their opinion. A more experienced examiner verifies every comparison from day one. The courts do not establish any prerequisite number of comparisons examiners must make prior to admitting their testimony in court, providing they have received adequate training. How is this skill (something with even more severe consequences as it relates to someone's ultimate freedom), any different than the skill of a polygraph examiner? Competent and successful polygraph examiners do their best work before or after their subject takes the actual polygraph exam. This is where their experience level pays off. A polygraph examiner's most important skill is not their experience in administering the Pre - Employment Polygraph Examiner February 26, 2002 Page 4 of 4 exam and interpreting polygraph charts, but rather, their ability to get the subject to tell the truth. While Investigator Lowe may not have 200 polygraph exams under his belt, as of this writing, he has 104. (He had completed 98 exams when he conducted the polygraph on the Fire Department applicant that began this dialogue.) Officer Lowe does have nearly 15 years of law enforcement experience, with over 8 years of that as an Investigator. He was chosen for the ancillary duties of Polygraph Operator because of his outstanding skills as an interviewer. Since his initial training school, Investigator Lowe has participated in a 16 -hour training conference conducted by the California Association of Polygraph Examiners, and a 40 -hour training update conducted by the Baxter School of Lie Detection. He is a member in good standing with the California Association of Polygraph Examiners and the American Association of Police Polygraphists (AAPP). While both organizations have a 200 - polygraph exam requirement to become a "full member" or "certified member", those numbers do not speak to the quality of those examinations. In fact, Sergeant Perrin, the President of the California organization (himself not even a member of AAPP), does not consider the 200 -exam threshold to be meaningful in the final analysis. He believes the standard reflects a historical view of the Association and requirements that were set quite some time ago. Overall, we have the utmost confidence in Officer Lowe's ability to competently and effectively administer polygraph exams, especially given the lengths we have undertaken to provide the program with an appropriate level of oversight. In my view, any concern over the level of experience in our Police Department's current polygraph operators is unwarranted, based upon the level of ongoing oversight and review of the operators' work. We have set and maintained very high standards to ensure the integrity of the process. In addition, I am not aware of one complaint in the 8' /z years I have been the Chief of Police in Newport Beach, where an applicant was disqualified solely on the basis of a disputed polygraph. A polygraph should only be one component in a thorough background process, and it has been used in that manner for all Police Department employment. The Fire Chief assures me their Department uses the information in a similar manner. We are confident our polygraph process can withstand any scrutiny, both internally and externally. Establishing any policy with an arbitrary set of prerequisites, will not improve upon a process that already is working quite well. In fact, it could lead to a relaxation of the ongoing oversight (consciously or otherwise), in favor of a reliance on those artificial standards. In conclusion, the outcome of the polygraph examination in the manner it is used by our Department and the Fire Department does not "determine career direction'; rather it is the candidates' past deeds (as part of a complete background), and their veracity about those deeds, that determines that direction. Bob McDonell CHIEF OF POLICE