"I have no personal reservations," he said. "It is a positive development, because it gives the security forces an indication of persons who might be tainted that are in the organization, or persons who might be trying to get into the organization."

The former Commissioner of Police of the Royal Barbados Police Force emphasized that polygraph testing was only part of the vetting process, and was not the determinative factor in evaluating a current or prospective employee.

"Let's say you have a person in the organization who fails a test, you can't say that he's involved in anything, you just have to investigate further," he explained. "The vetting process involves more than just a polygraph test, there are background checks and other measures to be taken. It's just one factor."

Watson staunchly supported the testing method's usefulness, especially in regard to prospective new members of the RSS.

"For the policy to be effective with regard to serving members of the security forces, we need to look at people who are seeking to enter the organization," he said. "You can put that down as part of the requirements for entering the Security Services. In addition to medical and other processes, the polygraph test will be included."

"It is not something new in the region," he continued. "For some time, we have been doing polygraphs for persons who work in certain sensitive areas, but it was on a voluntary basis."

According to published reports, the new RSS policy regarding polygraph testing is scheduled to be in place by the end of April. The RSS is a joint mission of Barbados and six members of the OECS: Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Commissioner of the Royal St. Kitts and Nevis Police Force Austin Williams, who was among those in attendance at the March 26 Council of Ministers' Meeting at the St. Kitts Marriott Resort where the decision to add polygraph testing was made, revealed to The Observer that there was a plan to mandate testing for certain positions in St. Kitts and Nevis as well.

"No date has been set for the implementation, but testing will be required for sensitive positions, such as CID, Drug Squad, and Special Branch," he said.

He further noted that polygraph testing has been performed locally for quite some time, but never as part of department protocol.

A polygraph, also known as a 'lie detector,' is an instrument that measures and records several bodily responses to a series of questions, such as blood pressure, pulse, respiration, breathing rhythms/ratios, and skin conductivity. The underlying rationale is that deceptive answers will produce physiological responses that can be differentiated from those associated with answers that are verified to be true.

The testing method's accuracy has been widely questioned, with some experts tagging its error rate to be in excess of 35%. After testimony before the U.S. Congress in 1998, the polygraph was found to be so inaccurate that the Employee Polygraph Protection Act was passed, virtually eliminating the use of the polygraph by employers. It was also recommended that the federal government discontinue its use.

Critics also point to a number of recent cases that have involved a reported failure of the testing system. For example, on February 19, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the conclusion of its investigation into the well-publicised 2001 anthrax attacks. Their report maintains that Dr. Bruce Edwards Ivans, who passed a polygraph test in 2002 regarding his part in the incidents, was in fact the sole perpetrator.