Residents question Eagle police chief's side job
Help to pass polygraph 'misunderstood'
The Village of Eagle - The Village Board met in closed session Jan. 21 to discuss, among other things, concerns raised by some village residents about the ethics of Village Police Chief Russ Ehlers' private consulting service Earn Your Badge. Ehlers has created a series of videos giving police candidates advice on how to get hired, including one on how to pass the pre-employment polygraph test.
Village President Richard Spurrell explained that residents have expressed concerns that Ehlers was offering this advice as a village employee. But Spurrell said this is not the case. He said Ehlers has been conducting this business entirely separately from his duties for the village.
Spurrell said the Village Board "doesn't condone it, but don't condemn it," and that there is not much the board can do as long as there is no affiliation between Earn Your Badge and the village.
Earn Your Badge
Ehlers explained that he began working on the concept of Earn Your Badge last summer, and that he films each video from his home.
"One of the more intimidating portions of the law-enforcement hiring environment is the oral board interview," Ehlers said. With years of experience in law enforcement and law-enforcement hiring, Ehlers felt he could assist police candidates get hired.
Ehlers added that when it comes to free information on the Internet for police candidates, some of it is good and some of it is bad.
"I wanted to do my best to create a warehouse of good info for the candidates," said Ehlers.
As the demand for the Earn Your Badge Pass Your Oral Board service increased, Ehlers explained, "so did the inquiries for a service that addressed the mysteries and controversy surrounding the pre-employment polygraph."
This spawned a section of the website called "Pass Your Polygraph."
During the interviewing process, police candidates are subject to a polygraph (lie-detector test) in some states. Some people will fail the test even if they're honest, due to something called a false positive, Ehlers explained.
"I felt a great desire to assist qualified and honest police candidates in avoiding false positive exam results when it was their turn to take the polygraph," said Ehlers.
"Pass Your Polygraph takes the mystery out of the process of a polygraph exam and is meant to assist candidates in avoiding a false positive exam result," Ehlers explained. "In reality, Pass Your Polygraph is a product that serves not only the police candidate but the law-enforcement agency as well."
Outdated methods
Ehlers said that the polygraph is a machine that was invented in 1921, and its technology has not changed much over the years. Using it in the law-enforcement hiring process has led to many well-qualified, moral candidates being denied positions because of false positive results, he said.
"Personally, I believe the polygraph is pseudoscience and has long overstayed its welcome in the pre-employment screening arena. It's time to explore new technology and to rely more on improved background investigations," Ehlers said.
"Until law enforcement moves to a different device or vetting model, Earn Your Badge will move forward with assisting competent law-enforcement candidates with an ethical and viable Web-based service that removes the mystery of the polygraph and may just help them avoid erroneous exam results. They deserve it," said Ehlers.
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4 Comments
Atron - Jan 31, 2012 3:06 PM
MyTwoCents - Jan 31, 2012 3:32 PM
justavoter - Feb 02, 2012 4:42 PM
Glenrock - Feb 03, 2012 1:29 PM