Lying and getting away with it much more difficult in this age

Pfc. Claude Holland of the Berlin Police Department demonstrates how he would interview a suspect using the computer voice stress analyzer. The microphone clipped to the lapel of Bernita Downing records her answers, and the computer creates graphs of her voice patterns that show if she is telling the truth or not. OCEAN CITY TODAY/CHRISTINE CULLEN (Feb. 5, 2010) Pfc. Claude Holland knows when you’re lying.

Don’t bother trying to trick him. He’ll catch you every time.

Holland, an officer with the Berlin Police Department, is trained as a voice stress examiner. With the aid of a computerized device called a “computer voice stress analyzer,” he can detect when a person is being deceptive during questioning.

The device is simple to use. A microphone is clipped onto the lapel of the person being questioned. The microphone is attached to the special laptopsize computer that records the responses to yes/no answer questions and prints a graph of the voice patterns for each response. Holland then reads the responses to see if the person was telling the truth or being deceptive.

“It detects discreet and uncontrollable changes in a person’s voice,” Holland said. “There’s no human way to detect those changes.”

The stress of trying to hide a deceptive answer creates changes in a person’s voice patterns, but the difference cannot be heard by the human ear. This is what the computer and software measure, and Holland is trained to read the patterns and tell when a person is trying to deceive him.

The voice stress analyzer is similar to a polygraph, but the two are not the same. A polygraph measures voice patterns, blood pressure, heart rate and skin temperature and the person being questioned must be hooked up to a multitude of sensors.

“The main difference is that this simply measures a person’s voice pattern,” Holland said.

To analyze voice stress, the person being questioned does not have to be hooked up to a machine; they only need to have their voice heard by it. This can be done in person, over the telephone or even from a recording made at another date, as long as the questions were asked in a yes/no answer fashion.

For that reason, the device is portable and can be taken into the field during investigations.

“It’s probably one of the best tools to help police officers in their investigations that I’ve seen in my 25 years as an officer,” Holland said. He uses the device quite frequently – on six occasions last month – and said it is useful in criminal cases as well as pre-employment screening.

Holland took a weeklong training course in August 2009 in New Jersey held by a National Institute of Truth Verification trainer and must take a recertification course every two years. The training and the machine cost the Berlin Police Department around $12,000, which was paid for by a grant.

The voice stress analyzer cannot solve crimes on its own, Holland cautioned. It can only tell him when a suspect is being deceptive; it cannot find out the truth.

“The machine is nothing more than a tool, but it’s a great tool. It tells you whether a person is being deceptive or not,” Holland said. “If they’re deceptive, you’ve also got to have good skills as an interviewer to get them to tell you why,” Holland said.

It is also useful in clearing suspects who are not involved in cases by showing they were truthful during questioning.

“It helps guide detectives on which way they need to go with a case,” Holland said. “It helps eliminate persons who are not involved, as well as implicate those who are.”

Holland’s skills helped police arrest a suspect Jan. 22 in the Dec. 6 beating and robbery of a Berlin convenience store owner.

“The detectives had already talked to him multiple times, and he denied any involvement. He came in, I talked to him and showed him where he was being deceptive. When confronted with the results, he started to talk,” Holland said.

Sgt. Van Muir of the Worcester County Bureau of Investigation called the voice stress analyzer a “great tool” and said the detectives there are grateful for Holland’s assistance in solving that case and others. Because of the successes, the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office sent two deputies to Annapolis to be trained as voice stress examiners last week, and one will work full-time with the WCBI.

When a person is being interviewed by police, he or she will likely be under stress even if he is innocent. Holland said the machine is able to tell the difference between that normal stress and the stress of telling a lie.

“We know everybody’s going to be stressed when taking this test. The machine is programmed to take regular stress into account,” he said. That’s also why he asks the same questions multiple times, to make sure any stress that registers is truly a product of deception.

“For a normal person, that stress is going to disappear as the test progresses. But a guilty person’s stress level is only going to go up,” he said.

Sometimes, the very presence of the machine is enough to make a suspect confess, Holland said. The results are typically only admissible in court if a suspect agrees in writing before being tested, but it helps point detectives in the right direction.

“I’ve found it a very reliable and necessary tool in doing investigations,” Holland said.