The room was quiet, all that could be heard was the click of the mouse. I could feel my heartbeat through my arm from the pressure of the cuff that enveloped my arm.
“Please sit still and face forward,” the polygrapher said to me.
I try to steady my breathing and get focused.
“The test will now begin,” said the polygrapher.
I, along with over 30 other Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency employees (DCSA), were volunteer role-players polygraphed to assist students at the National Center for Credibility Assessment (NCCA) in Fort Jackson, S.C.
“We use role players to help the students be able to practice conducting polygraph tests,” said Christian Driskell, Polygraph specialist instructor with NCCA. “Students get to ask a question to a person who can respond with real life answers. So, it makes it more real, and that experience helps them when they start to conduct tests for their own agency.”
NCCA needed over 30 role-players a week for four weeks to be able to supplement the training for their students. Role players volunteer for a week at a time and come from all areas of DCSA.
“Being a role player was a great opportunity to visit and meet with coworkers of other departments in the agency, it was a great experience,” said Elizabeth Yao, Adjudication and Vetting Services, and week 2 role player.
Napoleon Bradford, DCSA Chaplain and a week 2 role player, said “he was excited to be part of the training and was amazed at the level of patience and mastery the polygraph students had with the role players.”
Chief of Staff Ellen Ardrey, a week 1 role player, is someone who has taken several polygraphs during her career with the federal government and her experience as a role player has deepened her appreciation for the polygrapher.
“I knew the polygraph was very technical, however, until I was a role player, I did not fully appreciate the art of rapport required to work with a variety of subjects,” said Ardrey.
“We greatly appreciate the support the employees from DCSA have given us, and I recognize that everybody that has come down here to help us has put their own mission on hold. I say it's an NCCA mission, but it's really a DCSA mission and I think this really showcases the unity of effort [at DCSA],” said Amy Kiefer, Director, NCCA. “It is mentally exhausting for a role player, and we recognize that. What DCSA personnel have done for us is extraordinary.”
"[NCCA] is the part of DCSA that is responsible for training federal polygraph examiners,” said Driskell. “The federal agencies that have a polygraph program send employees here to go through our training program, and then they go back to their agencies to implement what they've learned here over 12 plus weeks of training.”
Ardrey articulated, “NCCA plays a critical role for DCSA and our federal partners and the vetting process of polygraph examiners helps secure the trustworthiness of the U.S. Government workforce.”
NCCA has oversight for 30 federal polygraph programs; however, NCCA is not just a polygraph school. NCCA is also mandated to conduct inspections to ensure federal polygraphers are conducting their jobs in alignment with law and policy. NCCA also assists polygraphers by certifying required continuing education hours for polygraphers and assisting with the testing and validation of any new credibility assessment tools.
The United States federal government has been using polygraphs since 1951 and NCCA trains 100% of the polygraphers in federal service. Federal polygraphers are selected from their respective services and sent to the school. All students at NCCA may receive graduate level course credits for successfully completing the 12-week course.
NCCA is one of three education schoolhouses housed within DCSA under the Security Training directorate. The other two are the Center for Development of Security Excellence, which provides training and credentialing to DOD personnel, select federal agency employees and DOD-sponsored foreign employees, and the DCSA Security Academy which focuses on standardization skills for DCSA employees.
The biggest takeaway of the week is that the polygraph that you see on TV and in the movies is the ‘Hollywood’ version and it can make it seem much more simplistic than an actual polygraph. Few people appreciate how much training goes into becoming a skilled polygrapher. A lot of hours are spent not only learning the science of the polygraph, but also interviewing and interpersonal communication skills which you must have with other people just to be able to communicate. Polygraph training is specialized, it's not just looking for a ‘bump’ on a chart to determine if someone is deceitful.