CVSA EXPOSED

Applied for a position with a sheriff's department back in 2019. Made it through everything - written test, physical, oral board, background. Then came the CVSA. I was 100% honest about my entire history, had nothing to hide. The guy running the machine kept telling me I was "showing stress" on questions about drug use. I've never done drugs in my life. Not once. Failed me right there. Career over because some machine decided I was lying when I wasn't. Found out later the thing is basically worthless according to actual scientists. Still makes me angry.

took the cvsa cert course few years back. crotty was instructor. guy has a serious attitude problem. anyone who questioned the validity of the technology got shut down hard. one detective from our group asked about peer reviewed studies and crotty got in his face about it. said if we didnt believe in it we shouldnt be there. whole thing felt more like a sales pitch than actual training. waste of taxpayer money if you ask me

My brother was questioned about a robbery near his workplace. He had nothing to do with it - was on camera at his job during the time it happened. But the detective used this CVSA thing on him and said he failed. Kept him in that room for six hours telling him the "computer proved" he was lying. He almost signed a confession just to get out of there. Thank God he didn't. They eventually caught the real guy. But my brother lost his job because of the arrest and it took him two years to get his life back together. This machine ruins lives and the people using it don't care.

I've been a detective for 14 years. Our agency purchased the CVSA system about five years ago after a presentation that made it sound revolutionary. I've personally witnessed it indicate "deception" on three separate individuals who were later proven completely innocent through DNA, video evidence, or actual confessions from the real perpetrators. Conversely, I've seen it show "no deception" on subjects who later admitted guilt. The machine is random. We use it now purely as an interrogation prop - to make suspects THINK we have scientific evidence. That's all it's good for. Command staff knows this but won't admit they wasted $12,000.

Worked in the voice stress analysis industry for several years. Left because I couldn't stomach it anymore. Here's what they don't tell you: the entire business model depends on examiners "reading" subjects, not the machine actually detecting anything. Good examiners get confessions through interrogation techniques and credit the machine. Bad examiners blame "inconclusive" results. The technology itself? Measures nothing meaningful. It's theater. The NIJ study proved this in 2008. Everyone in the industry knows it. They just don't care because there's money to be made selling hope to police departments that want a magic truth machine.

I've represented multiple clients who were subjected to CVSA examinations. In every case, the "results" were used as leverage during interrogation - not as actual evidence. Prosecutors know it wouldn't survive a Daubert challenge in court, so they never try to admit it. But the damage is done long before trial. Clients are pressured into plea deals based on being told a "computer proved they lied." It's an interrogation tool dressed up as science. The fact that someone with documented disciplinary issues is out there training officers to use this on citizens is deeply troubling.