Skip to main content

Why Does Oklahoma License Polygraph Examiners?

Should polygraph examiners be licensed?

In Oklahoma, a license is required to work as a polygraph examiner (a professional who applies lie-detector tests), and it is not at all obvious why.


Generally, an occupation is licensed if it is obviously in the public’s interest to prevent potential bad actors from practicing. So, for example, it is argued that doctors must be licensed because, otherwise, some idiot might open a hospital in his garage and really hurt someone. And it is argued that accountants must be licensed because, otherwise, some college-dropout might offer to do accounting for an unsuspecting mom-and-pop shop, tell them their numbers look great (when, in fact, they don’t), and cause them to go bankrupt.


In short, occupational licensing is supposed to either (1) prevent real, tangible harm, or (2) assure customers that their service-provider is trustworthy. However, interestingly, licensing polygraph examiners does not accomplish either of those goals because polygraph examiners do not do anything remotely dangerous (they don’t use chemicals, break the skin, or subject anyone to discomfort or uncleanliness), nor is their practice very complicated (a short YouTube video can explain how to apply a lie-detector test). The absolute worst thing that a lie-detector test can do is produce a false-positive and assign guilt to an innocent person. We wouldn’t want an incompetent practitioner to destroy a good marriage or cause the termination of a loyal government employee, now would we?

No, but even if licensing really can guarantee that service-providers are competent, the false-positive problem still exists. The absolute best polygraph examiner in the world can’t guarantee perfect accuracy (or even half-good accuracy) because the lie-detector test itself is highly unreliable. It simply doesn’t work very well. According to the U.S. Supreme Court, the rate at which the test fails is about the same as the rate at which a coin-toss produces heads. (That is why the test is not allowed as evidence in most courts and is outright banned in all military courts.)

Therefore, licensing polygraph examiners makes about as much sense as licensing baseball players. The goal of a batter is to get hits, but it is easier said than done. An excellent hitter is still very unreliable. He’s just marginally less unreliable than a bad hitter. In the same way, a good polygraph examiner is still very bad at detecting lies. He’s just not quite as unreliable as a bad polygraph examiner.


So, there is no reason at all why the state of Oklahoma should be in the business of deciding who is allowed to try his hand at detecting lies. There is no public-interest justification whatsoever. And yet, it is indeed illegal to fail to obtain a license. Even more puzzling, the requirements imposed on license applicants are unnecessarily excessive. Acquiring a license takes several years and costs tens of thousands of dollars. In fact, it is much faster and easier to become a paramedic, despite paramedics needing much higher skill and facing much higher stakes on the job.


Not only are the requirements obviously unnecessary; they don’t even make sense. For example, an applicant needs one of either (a) a four-year degree of any kind, or (b) five years of relevant experience. That means that a philosophy major would qualify for a license over someone with four years of actual, relevant experience (one year short of the requirement).


Ultimately, it seems much more likely that polygraph examiners are licensed not because it is in the public’s interest but because it is in the interest of lobbyists. After all, licensing makes it very difficult for new people to enter the occupation. Less competition means established service-providers can raise their prices with impunity. It’s good for them, but it is bad for the rest of us (consumers and job-seekers).


The state should not involve itself in the monopolizing efforts of established practitioners of any trade. Likewise, polygraph examiners should not be licensed.


by Luke Tucker, 1889 Institute Intern and PhD candidate in Philosophy


Popular posts from this blog

1889 Institute's Statement Regarding School Closures

The 1889 Institute, an Oklahoma think tank, has released the following statement regarding Joy Hofmeister’s proposal to keep schools closed for the remainder of the school year. We at the 1889 Institute consider Joy Hofmeister’s proposal to close Oklahoma’s schools for the rest of the school year a gross overreaction to the coronavirus situation. Even in the best of times and circumstances, suddenly shifting every student in the state from traditional classrooms to online distance learning will have negative educational consequences. This in addition to the economic burden on two-earner families forced to completely reorder their lives with schools closed. We believe many of our leaders have overreacted to worst-case scenarios presented by well-intended health experts with no training or sense of proportion in weighing the collateral damage of shutting down our economy versus targeting resources to protect the truly vulnerable. We say reopen the schools and stop the madness. ...

Can Government Force You to Close Your Business?

1889 Institute takes no position on whether any or all of these measures are warranted or necessary, or whether their economic fallout would inflict more human suffering than they prevent. We are simply evaluating whether they are legal.   With the unprecedented (in the last 100 years at least) reaction surrounding the outbreak of Covid-19, questions that few living legal scholars have considered are suddenly relevant.   Can a quarantine be ordered?   Can a mass quarantine, lockdown, or “cordon sanitaire” be ordered? Can businesses be ordered to change their behavior?   Can businesses be ordered to close? Can state governments order these measures? Can local governments order these measures? My legal brief addresses these issues from a statutory point of view; it is clear that state law gives the governor and mayors broad authority in a state of emergency. They must, of course, do so in a neutral way that they reasonably believe will help preve...

Even If Pandemic Models Were Right, Were Covid Lockdowns Wrong?

1889 has been quite critical of pandemic modeling that government officials have relied on for their Covid-19 response. We have also criticized shutdown orders in light of flaws in the models. But let’s assume for a moment that the worst predictions really would have come true if nothing was done. Even in those worst case scenarios, it’s fair to ask if our governments did the right thing. Were involuntary shutdowns justified, or would people have found a way to both limit the contagion and maintain some level of productivity? Was putting healthy citizens under house arrest acceptable even if they were willing to risk infection?   While large groups of people are often compared to herd animals, we are not sheep. We don’t behave like animals. We can, have, and will step up when our communities are in danger. When government and journalists give incomplete or false information, people will act irrationally. Depending on the situation, some will blindly follow the first aut...

COVID Inspires Tyranny for the "Good" of Its Victims

The Christian philosopher, C.S. Lewis, once said, "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies." The moral busybodies C.S Lewis warns of reminds me of those who would have Americans give up their liberty to combat COVID-19.   A recent Oklahoman op-ed compared COVID-19 to World War II, stating that the number of deaths from COVID-19 is approaching the number that died fighting for this country and the freedoms it protects. This comparison is, of course, nonsense. This suggests that a virus with a high survivability rate is an equivalent threat to the Nazi and Japanese regimes that brutally murdered millions. The piece uses wartime rationing of meat and cheese, a sacrifice necessary to ensure men on the front lines had adequate nutrition, to justify Americans accepting counterproductive lockdowns in exchange for additional stimulus c...