Opposing Viewpoints – City shouldn’t pay $10,000 for tests that can’t be used in court

I approve of most everything new McMinnville Police Chief Charlie Sewell has done to bring the local police department into the 21st Century technologically. I heartily approved of the purchase of the Segway, for instance, and like his innovative efforts to improve the department’s image and relationship with the community with police trading cards.

But I’m not so sure about his most recent brainchild, a controversial lie detector machine which purports to work by using a computer to analyze stress levels in the voice of suspects under interrogation.

With apologies to Mr. Sewell, I have a couple of reasons for my skepticism and disapproval of this system.

The first is the results of these tests are inadmissible in court, as are conventional polygraph tests. After all, 10 states have banned the use of this technology, and I have to think there must be some sound reasoning behind those decisions.

The second is the expense, with the device slated to set city taxpayers back $9,995. What do we get for almost $10,000? A laptop, some microphones and a computer program.

These days most folks are well aware you can get a really nice Dell or HP laptop for a little more than a tenth of that price, and it’s probably safe to say the company is getting a major bulk purchase discount. So we’re out around $9,000 for some microphones and software?

I don’t doubt this system would be an effective investigative tool, but wouldn’t a conventional polygraph system work just as well? And I would bet we could get access to one of those for a lot less than $9,995, and come up with essentially the same results.

Sorry Charlie, though I think the Segway was well worth the money, I have to disagree with you on this one.