Former cop gets 2 years in prison for coaching people on how to beat polygraph tests

Polygraph.com was a website offering training to customers on how to fool a polygraph lie detector test. Now, its owner, a retired cop, is headed to prison.

Former Oklahoma City police officer Douglas G. Williams, 69, was sentenced Tuesday to two years in prison for mail fraud and witness tampering. Williams  pled guilty to the federal charges back in May.

A Department of Justice press release points out a case where Williams trained someone pretending to be a federal law enforcement officer on how to conceal his involvement in criminal activity. In another incident, Williams helped someone seeking federal employment to lie about their crimes in a pre-employment polygraph test.

The current version of Polygraph.com mainly is a resume site for Williams, including a prominent ad for his book From Cop to Crusader. An Archive.org snapshot of the website from 2005 shows how Williams pitched his services.

Getting prepared has never been easier, just buy the manual online, print it off immediately, watch the training video, then call or email me (12 hrs a day 7 days a week), with any questions – I personally GUARANTEE I can show you how to ALWAYS produce a “truthful” polygraph chart – nervous or not and whether you are lying or truthful – NO MATTER WHAT! I WILL be your drill instructor and I WILL get you ready!

And don’t believe the polygraphers when they tell you they will catch you if you use so-called “countermeasures”. I teach much more than simple “countermeasures”, I teach you how to always produce a TRUTHFUL chart – and if you use my manual and DVD, a TRUTHFUL chart is the only thing the polygrapher will see.

I put YOU in charge of your test – YOU control the results!

A cornerstone of Williams’ objection to polygraphs is a belief that they don’t always do the one thing they are designed to: that is, to determine whether or not someone is telling the truth. He has a point, as scientists has never been overly confident in polygraphs.

A National Academy of Sciences review of the technology in 2002 found it could tell if someone was being honest “at rates well above chance,” which isn’t exactly a glowing endorsement. A Harvard study from 2014 cited “widely divergent rates of accuracy in detecting deception.”

Still, it’s usually not a good idea to train someone on how to lie to the federal government. They tend to frown on that sort of thing.