Kieso Polygraph Services In The News:
Truth detective knows when you are lying
Argus Leader – Sioux Falls, SD – December 4, 2010
Read The Original Article Online At The Argus Leader Website: http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=201012040327
The polygraph tests seen on television and film crime dramas with a seismograph-like needle recording a suspect’s nervous behavior on paper are more fiction than fact. “The analog polygraph instrument they show with the lines going up and down, they use that for dramatic effect,” says Christian Kieso of Kieso Polygraph Services. Kieso is one of the few polygraph examiners in the Sioux Falls area.
Like most modern examiners, Kieso uses a digital computerized polygraph instrument to help verify a person’s veracity. And most of his work is done in a clinic, not a courtroom or police station. Kieso shares more about how he got started administering polygraph exams and how the tests keep a community safer.
Tell Us About Your Business
“Kieso Polygraph Services provides truth verification, credibility assessment or lie detection service.
“A lot of my clients are post-conviction sexual offenders, parolees or probationees who are in the community on probation. As part of their treatment they have to take sexual history polygraphs. We can learn about other victims or victimization, whether there was force involved.
“It’s a wonderful investigative tool to help the therapist or parole officer determine their level of compliance. It’s often called the containment approach.
“In addition to sexual history polygrams, we do what is called a maintenance polygraph, a public safety test. We test to see whether they are violating the rules, drinking, using drugs, having contact with children, looking at pornography.
“I also work for attorneys as needed, for defense attorneys, testing for infidelity situations or domestic issues for people in relationships. Sometimes parents testing children for theft and other domestic issues.”
How Did You Come To Do This Job
“I was fascinated growing up with detectives and investigative work, basically in community service and keeping people off the streets. I worked in juvenile corrections and adult corrections. I went to college and got a degree in psychology. I worked at the Juvenile Detention Center in Sioux Falls for five and a half years.
“The Department of Corrections was looking for someone to help with polygraphs for sex offenders. So I went to the Academy for Scientific Investigative Training in Philadelphia in 2006. The course was 10 weeks, and then you have to do a yearlong internship.”
Describe Your Daily Routine At Work
“Much of my work is every six months, someone who is on parole or probation as part of their compliance agreement, to gather information from them to help treatment providers. I do a typical polygraph process, gather background, medical information, see if there’s any violations he would need to report.
“I administer examination, monitor his physiology, decide whether he’s being truthful or deceptive. The results of the test go out to the person he’s in therapy with and to his parole agent or probation officer.
“The examination process lasts 90 minutes to two hours. We put two pneumograph cord monitors on the chest and abdomen to monitor breathing and upper body motion; two electrodes on the fingers to monitor and record sweat gland activity; a blood pressure cuff to monitor cardiovascular activity; and a polygraph chair, designed for polygraph examinations. It’s comfortable, and there’s a motion-sensor pad on the seat to monitor and record body movements.
What Do You Like Best About Your Job?
“In some way, I’m helping people. People say you can’t really change a sex offender, but you can monitor them. It allows them to be taken off the street or allows the parole agent to reel them in a little bit more. …
“I also enjoy truth verification. There are a lot of people accused of things they didn’t do. I enjoy the challenge, the interaction, the interviewing of people from different backgrounds.”
What Do You Like Least?
“The challenge. Sometimes, many of the clients can be very difficult. Lack of cooperation is frustrating.”
Polygrapher knows if you’ve been bad or good
Sioux Falls Business Journal – Sioux Falls, SD – December 1, 2010
Read The Original Article Online At The Sioux Falls Business Journal Website: http://siouxfallsbusinessjournal.argusleader.com/article/20101201/BJNEWS08/101130071
Christian Kieso works out of a small, low-profile office along East 41st Street, but he might have one of the most interesting jobs in Sioux Falls. He’s a licensed polygraph examiner and the operator of Kieso Polygraph Services.
Since 1988, federal law generally has prohibited employers from using lie-detector tests for pre-employment screening or during employment. There are exceptions that cover positions in fields such as security and drug manufacturing.
Despite restrictions, Kieso keeps pretty busy conducting required polygraph exams on convicted sex offenders. Occasionally, he also does private work. For example, an embattled spouse might request a polygraph test in an attempt to prove fidelity. Or a parent might want to test a child’s claim of innocence.
Kieso points out that he’s not a therapist. But he – and three or four other private examiners in the area – can help people find truth, he says. Polygraphs monitor heart rate, blood pressure, sweat and respiratory activity. Single-issue testing produces highly reliable results, Kieso says. Accuracy rates drop in multiple-issue testing.
By the way, trying to mess up a polygraph reading by biting your tongue or by other physical means doesn’t work, Kieso says. The examiner will notice. “You just sort of get a feel for it,” he says. “If you’re aware that you’re lying about something, your body is going to react to it.”
