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Police set to test new lie detector machine
Police could soon be using lie detection equipment to interrogate suspects for the first time in Britain.
Researchers are talking to several police forces in the North West about real interview tests of a new system that looks for clues from involuntary gestures. If the tests go ahead it will be the first time police in the UK have used lie detectors.
Liverpool psychology professor Ian Donald said a great deal of interest had been shown in the device, Silent Talker.
The lie detector uses a video camera linked to an artificial intelligence system that spots small tell-tale movements people make unconsciously when they lie.
"We are talking to very senior people informally," Professor Donald told The Engineer magazine. "Possible police forces are Cheshire, Greater Manchester or Merseyside. We are going to contact the Association of Chief Police Officers and our aim is to trial this in real interviews."
The system would only be used in interviews with the consent of suspects and their lawyers. But a change in the law would be needed for the results to be admissible in court.
Silent Talker is said to have a 90 per cent success rate in detecting deceitful answers from a range of responses.
The conventional polygraph, regularly featured in police investigations in the United States, is claimed by some to have no more than a 60 per cent to 70 per cent success rate.
Dr Janet Rothwell, psychology researcher at Manchester Metropolitan University, who spent five years developing the lie detector said: "The artificial intelligence system watches for micro-gestures, blushing and head and shoulder movement."
The Police Information and Technology Organisation, which oversees law enforcement and biometrics research, said it was monitoring the project.
Mark Littlewood, campaigns director for the human rights organisation Liberty, said: "We are sceptical of its reliability and believe its more widespread use would be a serious and unacceptable erosion of the right to silence."
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Tuesday 07 February 2012
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