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Voice Stress Analysis Software to be Awarded to State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies



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Jun 30, 2008, News Report

Voice Stress Analysis Software to be Awarded to State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies

Drugs, health status, age and alcohol do not affect the results.

The developer of software that analyzes a subject's voice for signs of stress is offering law enforcement agencies 100 grants for the software to aid them in determining if an individual is telling the truth or not.

"[Digital Voice Stress Analysis (DVSA)] is the most significant technological advancement in credibility assessment since the invention of the old polygraph," E. Gary Baker, Ph.D., the developer of the BAKER-DVSA software, stated in a news release. "We utilized Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) validated science along with my 35 years of conducting truth verification examinations and training examiners worldwide in developing the algorithms."

Dr. Baker touted several advantages of the BAKER-DVSA over a polygraph.

  • Unlike polygraph, uncomfortable sensors are not attached to the body. DVSA analyzes speech to isolate brain initiated deceptive responses and relative psychological stress. Resulting filtered voice patterns are analogous to alpha brainwaves.
  • It is fast, reliable and proven accurate.
  • Software can be installed on existing agency computers which remain available for other tasks.
  • The proprietary "Voice Analysis Scoring Tool (VAST)" is the only scoring algorithm that confirms test results.

Assessments may be conducted with suspects, victims, witnesses, over the telephone, cold-case recorded interviews, public speech, intelligence technical intercepts, counter-intelligence, vetting of informants or during interrogations. Drugs, health status, age and alcohol do not affect the results. There are no known countermeasures. There are no "inconclusive" results, according to the Baker Group. However, polygraph examinations have 30% to 60% inconclusive opinions, the company said.

 

Over 2,500 U.S. law enforcement agencies use voice stress analysis including those in California, Florida, Tennessee, Illinois, Rhode Island, North Carolina and Georgia.

To aid agency personnel in the use of the software, the Baker Group Certified Examiner Course includes behavioral analysis, para-linguistics, neuro-linguistics, kinesics, removal of defensive barriers, question preparation and interrogation strategies to obtain confessions. Tuition is $1,500 per student. Classes sponsored by law enforcement agencies are held monthly throughout the U.S.

Grant applications for the system that normally sells for $9950 are available here.

 


Comments

By Thomas G. Brunswick on Jul 1, 2008

Baker's Voice Stress device was shown to less accurate than chance. The television show Dateline did a piece on Baker and revealed how phony he is. Ask Baker for the documented research on his device. He cannot produce any. On the other hand, the federal government has spent millions of dollars on polygraph research, and has used thousands of examinations in their studies. As a taxpayer I am very disappointed that Baker has not been sued for fraud, because his product does not deliver the advertised service.

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