Pre-employment Polygraph.. Confidential?

[employmentlaw]

I recently was "asked" to take a pre-employment polygraph for a local police dept. I was just interested in what if anything revealed during the poygraph could be released to my current employer or anyone else outside of the dept. that I applied with?

 

[Beth3]

There is a federal law on this - The Polygraph Protection Act, if I recall correctly (it's been a while since I took a look at this) - and it does require employers to post a notice as to whether polygraphs will be administered but I don't believe it requires the results to be kept confidential.

I seriously doubt that an employer, even the police department, would release the contents to anyone. Even IF they asked you if you ever stole from your employer, you replied "no," and the results showed you lied, it's still not a wholly reliable test which is why polygraph results can't be submitted as evidence in court. There's no up side for the employer conducting the test to tell anyone else about the results.

 

[freebird]

Originally posted by employmentlaw
I recently was "asked" to take a pre-employment polygraph for a local police dept. I was just interested in what if anything revealed during the poygraph could be released to my current employer or anyone else outside of the dept. that I applied with?

I think this was discussed. Is there any written policy on your application? I am sure it addresses this issue as well as the very likely confidentiality of your test. Additionally, there will be parameters for questioning and you'll know if there is a problem with the results. If you have nothing to worry about, then don't worry unless there is a need to. Are there questions that might be of concern?