Considerations

• In law enforcement, lie detection training enables officers to get better results when interrogating suspects. A 2004 study by psychologists Dr. Charles Bond and Dr. Bella DePaulo showed that without training an individual had a 53 percent chance of correctly assessing whether an individual was lying, says Rachel Adelson in the July 2004 issue of "Monitor on Psychology." Dr. Paul Ekman claims that with training he was able to get deception detection accuracy up to 90 percent, according to Adelson.
  
  

Examples of Training Courses

• Law enforcement training academies including the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center and the National Intelligence Academy offer lie detection training. FLETC offers a course called Advanced Interviewing for Law Enforcement Investigators Training Program. The program teaches officers interrogation skills including detecting deception through verbal and nonverbal cues. According to FLETC this training helps officers in "real world cases." The National Intelligence Academy offers training that focuses on interviews, interrogation and deception detection. According to the academy, this skill set aids the interviewer in areas including determining threat assessment for officer safety.
  
  

Examples of Lie Detection

• A person who lies will answer more slowly if he had little time to prepare, according to Dr. DePaulo and Wendy Morris in Adelson's article. If he had a lot of time to prepare, he will answer much faster than someone telling the truth. A lying suspect will often speak with a negative tone. Lie detection training enables law enforcement officers to pick up on these other, more subtle cues.