Georgia Polygraph Services conducts single-issue polygraph examinations across the state, in 49 private examination rooms spread over 19 Georgia towns and cities.
How we work
Three things shape almost every decision we make about an instruction.
One issue per examination. A single-issue examination on one clearly defined event is substantially more reliable than one attempting to cover several unrelated matters. If you have two genuine questions, that is two appointments. We would rather tell you that and lose the second booking than take one fee for a result neither of us should rely on.
The questions are agreed before the day. In writing, with everyone involved. There are no surprise questions in a properly conducted examination, and any examiner who keeps some back has misunderstood the technique they are using.
We turn work down. Regularly. Where someone has plainly been pressured into attending. Where an employer’s request does not meet the federal exemption it depends on. Where the examinee is intoxicated or in withdrawal. And where the question being asked is simply not one a polygraph can honestly address. This costs us money and it is not negotiable.
Where we examine
Examinations are held in serviced office suites rather than a clinic or a storefront. That is a deliberate choice. They are ordinary offices in ordinary commercial buildings, with normal reception areas and on-site parking, and nothing about walking into one identifies why you are there. It also means we can offer rooms in 19 places rather than asking the whole state to travel to one address in Atlanta.
The rooms are booked for your appointment. They are not staffed premises you can call at, so please do not attend without a confirmed booking.
What we are careful about
Two legal points come up constantly, and we would rather you heard them from us than discovered them later.
The first is admissibility. Polygraph results are admissible in a Georgia court only where both parties expressly stipulate, before the examination, that the result will be admitted whatever it shows — State v. Chambers, 240 Ga. 76 (1977). You cannot take a test, like the answer, and then offer it to the court.
The second is employment. The federal Employee Polygraph Protection Act of 1988 prohibits most private employers from requiring a polygraph, whether for hiring or during employment. Narrow exemptions exist and we will apply them properly, but if your business is not inside one we will say so on the telephone rather than take a booking.
Choosing any examiner
Whether or not you use us, ask four questions of anyone you are considering. Where did they train, and is that school accredited by the American Polygraph Association? Do they hold current APA membership? Which techniques do they use, and are those techniques validated? Do they carry professional indemnity insurance?
An examiner who is reluctant to answer any of the four has told you something useful.