For the first time in 46 years, new hires at Halifax Regional Police will be able to skip the polygraph test later this year.
On Tuesday, Halifax regional council voted to do away with polygraphs as part of the screening process for police officers and support positions at HRP that would involve staff or people on contract who can access sensitive information.
Dan Kinsella, HRP chief, said the polygraph has always just been one tool in the box in the screening process and that they will need some transition time to move people around and develop a new system. He said it will likely be September before everything is complete.
“It’s essential that our pre-employment screening methods are thorough and effective and we have to ensure the highest standards of honesty and integrity. The polygraph has been one part of that,” he said.
“We need a replacement mechanism for the polygraph and it will be a series of interviews and checks with the family and friends and those kinds of the things.”
Several councillors weren’t thrilled with the lag time and Kinsella said it’s possible that the timeline can be moved up for some positions. But, he said, HRP needs to do a thorough review of each position, determine what access each requires and develop a proper screening process.
Do no harm
Deputy Mayor Pam Lovelace (Hammonds Plain – St. Margarets) said she wanted assurances that the screening process wouldn’t harm individuals. She cited an example of where a newcomer applied for a custodial position and because of the polygraph, he was charged. And although the charges were later dropped, it caused a lot of harm. It was brought to light in a post from the committeetrawler.ca web site last year.
“We want to not put people into those positions in the future,” responded Kinsella, adding HRP also requires a rigorous screening program.
“We are changing a process that has been culturally embedded in this organization and in this municipality since 1976,” he said. “We just have to make sure the process we put in place, and it will be, at least as responsive to the needs of the organization as the polygraph while we treat people with respect and dignity, while we give them that opportunity to be able to show their best side and meet the needs of the background check.”
When Lovelace asked if Kinsella is rethinking the use of polygraphs in criminal investigations too, he said the two applications are entirely different and would require a different conversation.
“Currently that is still in use and I don’t want to go too far into the deployment aspects of it because some of it is sensitive, but we are currently continuing to use that,” he said.