MOSCOW, November 14 (RIA Novosti) – Police officers in Russia will have to start taking lie-detector tests as part of a corruption-fighting drive initiated by the Interior Ministry, daily newspaper Izvestia reported Thursday.
Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev has ordered that all police officers, drug police and employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service will now need to take polygraphs before getting hired or promoted, Izvestia reported.
Exams to test candidates’ inclination toward drug use will also be introduced, the newspaper said.
The tests are aimed at evaluating aspiring policemen’s personalities, improving staff quality and fighting corruption.
Polygraph tests are commonly used for screening government employees worldwide, but their reliability is widely disputed.
The US National Academy of Sciences published a report in 2003 that concluded that the majority of polygraph research was unscientific and biased.
