Police and private polygraph examiners alike love to use polygraph tests for both civil and criminal matters. Law enforcement officers love utilizing these investigative tools for solving criminal cases, like murder cases, rapes, and other criminal activity. They then use the results to help guide them toward the most likely suspects. Police can lie about the results to the suspects they are interrogating, leading many who take one from law enforcement officers to distrust their results.
Private polygraphists likewise often use them for both civil and criminal matters, such as infidelity, sex offender polygraphs, theft, embezzlement, child sexual abuse polygraph tests, etc. These results are given directly to the clients who pay for them, and when required by Oklahoma’s Mandatory Reporter Laws, to the proper law enforcement agency and/or Oklahoma Department of Human Services (DHS). However, if a criminal defense law firm directly hires the polygraph examiner in OKC to conduct the test, then the results fall under the defendant’s attorney-client privilege rights.
Table of Contents
Required Credentials for Oklahoma Polygraph Examiners:
To become an Oklahoma polygraph examiner, one must first obtain the proper licensing from the Oklahoma Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training (C.L.E.E.T.). No one can perform this kind of work nor operate a polygraph machine, without the proper licensure. To obtain licensure as a polygraph examiner in the State of Oklahoma, each application must first complete the following C.L.E.E.T requirements:
Be at Least Twenty-One (21) Years Old:
This is a basic age requirement that the State of Oklahoma has set forth. It wants to ensure that all people who become polygraph examiners in Oklahoma have first attained the age of majority. They should not be too young and immature to oversee this major responsibility. Besides, given the university or formal investigative experience requirements, it is unlikely that few, if any, applicants for this licensure would otherwise qualify prior to age twenty-one, unless they were those super genius kids who graduate law school at age eleven.
Be a United States Citizen:
As part of the license requirements to conduct lie detector tests in Oklahoma City, all applicants must be citizens of the USA. This helps added an extra layer of quality and reliability of background checks and moral character.
Have Integrity, Honesty, Fitness of Morality, and Truthfulness:
How on earth the licensing Board determines this is beyond the owners of our private investigation agency in Oklahoma City, but if polygraphists in Oklahoma take any action which gives the members of the Board any reason to question the degree of honesty, morality, truthfulness, or the examiner’s level of integrity, then they can technically deny initial or renewal licensure or even take action to suspend a current Oklahoma polygraph examiner license.
On that issue of “morality” per se, if the measure of our state’s politicians or former Oklahoma State Superintendent of Education personnel like disgraced bigot and repressed bisexual man, Ryan Walters, then this is a stupid requirement. Since most Oklahomans are anti-2SLGBTQIA+ and make these dumb policies that harm our world’s environment, harm education, give tax breaks to “religious” institutions selling fake profits, give tons of tax breaks to billionaires and rich companies, and deny social benefits and healthcare to the neediest Oklahomans, screw their morality here.
“Immoral” people like those in the transgender and other 2SLGBTQIA+ community, non-Christians, women, non-Whites, immigrants, non-Whites, the unhoused, and people with disabilities are often a better standard of morality than older, white, cisgender, “straight” old white men who make us look like a population of useful village idiots to the conservative elites and special interest groups. So, the Board has no room to speak on what makes a person “moral,” if the applicants do not go out murdering, raping, or thieving.
Earn Your Accredited Bachelor’s Degree or Have Earned a High School Diploma and Have Completed Five (5) Years of Investigative Experience or Have Character That the Board Finds Satisfactory:
While a four-year university degree is not absolutely required for licensure as a polygraph examiner in Oklahoma, it can help expedite the process. This is because it eliminates the need for the investigative experience requirement. Thus, if an applicant gets a degree in forensics, criminal justice, or other field they might use to become a law enforcement officer, their agency can immediately send them to train to become a polygraph examiner without first having to accrue five additional years of investigative experience.
The extra collegiate effort and demonstrated academic intelligence helps new polygraph examiners near me bypass the experience requirements in the same way as a college degree helps military service members become commissioned officers instead of lower-ranking, lower-paid enlisted personnel. Whether experience or college degrees are equal is a subject of another debate for a different time.
Graduate from an Accredited Polygraph School & Complete a Six (6) Month Internship:
Every person seeking to become a polygraph examiner in Oklahoma must first complete the proper basic coursework from an accredited polygraph examiner school. Once successfully completed, each applicant seeking to become an Oklahoma polygraphist who conducts polygraph tests in Edmond must also successfully complete a six-month internship with a licensed polygraph examiner in OKC like David Otwell.
Pass the Polygraph Examiner’s Test that the Board has Set Forth:
Another requirement that every applicant who wishes to become a polygraph examiner in El Reno, OK is to pass the state examination tests for polygraph examiners in Oklahoma. No one may obtain this licensure without first passing this crucial test of basic competence with a polygraph machine.
Apply for the Polygraph Examiner’s License & Pay All Appropriate Fees:
Once a person has successfully completed the items above for licensure, she/he/they may formally apply for the state licensure as a polygraph examiner and must pay the application fee. Once approved, C.L.E.E.T. will inform them as to the status of their licensure application and any subsequent approval.
Types of Polygraph Machines:
Before purchasing a polygraph test machine, each examiner must first decide what their needs are. Do they want more modern digital polygraph machines that are cool and easier to read and tally, but which cost more money? Do they desire a more traditional analog polygraph machine, or do they want to buy a portable one that is best for legal pros on the go who also need special sensors for testing sexual arousal to little kids and other extremely sensitive things. Thus, the three main types of polygraph examination machines are listed below as follows:
Portable/Specialized Polygraph Units:
These are ideal for legal professionals who need something they can carry from one place to another to run specialized polygraph tests for child sexual abuse or other sex crimes polygraphs and those for other specific reasons. Some have special sensors which help with certain kinds of lie detector tests, and they come in especially handy for legal pros on the go.
Computerized/Digital Polygraphs:
Some people working in this field prefer the newer, more advanced digital lie detector test machines that offer digital results. Instead of having ink pens and paper charts that record data like the older and now less common analog polygraph machines do, the new computerized ones are still relatively affordable and offer results that are easy to read.
Analog Polygraphs:
These are the more traditional infidelity polygraph test machines that have been around for much longer. Though equally reliable, they have become less common as new technology has produced digital/computerized polygraph test machines and portable ones. Some polygraph examiners still utilize these, however.
When these legal professionals conduct polygraph examinations in Norman, OK, there are different types of polygraph machines they may utilize to help them catch cheaters and detect other forms of deception. All these machines we mentioned earlier are equally valid and will still give decent results about whether deception occurred when the test subject answers each question.
Case Study & Admissibility Rules for Oklahoma Lie Detector Tests:
As for whether the courts will allow the results of polygraph examinations in Oklahoma into courtroom evidence and testimony, the answer is usually a resounding, “No.” In 1998, the United Sates Supreme Court Decision in United States vs. Scheffer ruled that federal courts cannot admit their results into evidence, due to concerns about their validity and reliability. So, unless both sides in a civil or criminal case agree to accept the results and the judge allows it, most courts rarely admit lie polygraphs into evidence.
