LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department has thousands of civilian employees working hard to back up the officers who keep us safe.
Applying for those positions can be rigorous as the department must ensure potential employees are trustworthy and have clean records. However, one applicant who reached out to 13 Investigates says the process took a bizarre and dark turn, which he called shocking and offensive.
We need to warn you that some of the details in this story may be disconcerting to some viewers.
When it comes to cars, Brendan Goad is as much an artist as he is a mechanic. His 1966 VW bus is like a resume and portfolio on wheels.
"And I did all the work myself; the brakes, the wiring, the engine, the paint, the body, everything," Goad said.
Goad's girlfriend is a KTNV newsroom employee. He relocated to Las Vegas from Arkansas last August.
"This is my personal vehicle when I found it years ago," Goad explains as he shows photos to 13 Investigates. "I pulled it out of the woods in Arkansas in 2018 and it was horrific. It was so bad. I wasn't even sure if it was salvageable."
New to the valley and looking for work in his field, Goad was excited to find a job posting for a Fleet Operations Technician with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
"May not be the best paying position, but it was one I knew I could be good at. It's one that I know," Goad said. "And it's a government position. It's a real job. It's mainly minor maintenance on Metro fleet vehicles. It's mostly scheduling, is what it was described as."
Goad applied for the job and was invited to continue with a written exam.
"And I did very well on it," he says. "It was stuff related to vehicles. You know, Q&A's, factoids, maintenance."
Correspondence from Metro shows he scored among the top performers in the applicant pool as he moved on in the process to the background check.
"And this is where I was feeling confident and validated," Goad says.
However, there was more to do. He was required to take a polygraph test, starting with this pre-employment polygraph booklet of 140 questions.
"A lot of them are very normal, past employment experiences," he says.
But Goad says they started digging deeper on the day of the in-person test.
"The sexual stuff got weird."
He says the polygraph questions were whether he was ever in a fight when he was a child or if he'd ever stolen a candy bar.
"Some of them went as far back as first grade," Goad explained.
Then, he says the examiner started asking about childhood sexual thoughts and experiences.
"They asked questions about masturbation, if I had masturbated in public."
Each question seemed progressively more bizarre.
"They wanted to know about times you've ever played doctor with cousins or siblings," Goad explains. "They asked about sexual relations with animals and she asked if I had ever specifically had sexual relations with a sheep."
"She asked that because you noted that you had grown up on a farm," I asked Goad.
"Right," he replied.
It didn't end there.
"I'm in this cubicle with this investigator and she's trying to dig deeper, asking if I've ever put peanut butter on myself and let a dog lick it off."
"What was your reaction when that question came at you," I asked.
"My jaw was on the floor. You know .... I couldn't believe I was hearing these things."
"How do they try to justify it?"
"They say, you know, we're just looking for a pattern in your life, something we may have to worry about in the future," Goad replied.
We asked an expert about those types of questions.
"I've never heard of those being used. Those seem really far out of line," said Dr. Christian Hart, a Professor of Psychology at Texas Woman's University.
Although polygraphs have been used in the U.S. for over 100 years, he says they remain controversial.
"All of the research on the polygraph that's been carried out for decades arrives at this consensus position that polygraphs are far from being perfect," Dr. Hart said.
Polygraph results are not admissible as evidence in court cases. However, Dr. Hart says the technology is about 80% to 85% accurate in criminal investigations when used in conjuction with a variety of other tools and techniques.
"The problem is when we're looking at innocent people who are telling the truth, about 20% of them get flagged as being dishonest," Dr. Hart explains.
According to the American Psychological Association, "there is the possibility of great damage to innocent persons who must inevitably be labeled as deceptors in situations where the base rate of deception is low; an unacceptable number of false positives would occur even should the validity of the testing procedures be quite high. There is no evidence that any pattern of physiological reactions is unique to deception. An honest person may be nervous when answering truthfully and a dishonest person may be non-anxious."
"We want to protect those 20% who would otherwise be flagged as being not suitable for employment when actually they are," Dr. Hart said.
Dr. Hart explains a polygraph device isn't actually capable of detecting lies despite what we see in Hollywood movies. In reality, it's simply an instrument of measure.
"Measuring things like heart rate, blood pressure, respiration rate, galvanic skin response, which is the tendency to sweat in the palms and in the fingers," Dr. Hart said.
It's up to the person administering the test — the polygraph examiner — to do the lie detecting. However, it's not an exact science.
"The polygraph examiner can't say with certainty that the person is being deceptive or the person is being honest," Dr. Hart explains. "Polygraph examiners are engaged in making a subjective determination about the physiological responses."
The federal Polygraph Protection Act of 1988 makes it illegal, in most situations, for private companies to require that job applicants take lie detector tests. However, the law does allow government agencies to do pre-employment polygraphs.
When we reached out to Metro about their process, they said they were "unable to provide an interview" for this report.
In response to our questions, they sent links to the jobs section of their website where the polygraph booklet and other materials are posted. However, the site doesn't explain — and Metro did not answer — why they stand by the use of polygraph, specifically for civilian positions like the one Goad applied for.
"It's unfair. It's unright," says attorney Christian Gabroy, who specializes in employment law. Gabroy took Goad's case after he learned he didn't get the job. "When a certain type of test gets out of control, it really harms individuals."
Metro didn't claim Goad lied about anything. In an email to him, they say he was disqualified because he did not meet the acceptable standard in the polygraph test, which Goad chalks up to nerves.
"It's very upsetting to be asked questions like this, not because I'm guilty of any of them, but because I never did anything like this," Goad said. "I was nervous because I couldn't believe somebody felt like they had the authority to ask me these questions."
Gabroy believes the questions crossed the line.
"Blatant violations of federal law and state law. Sexual harassment, sexual discrimination, retaliation, clear as can be," says Gabroy, who explains how these types of questions are against the law in the private sector.
If Goad applies for a job anywhere else in the city or county, Gabroy says he could be asked if he was disqualified for a previous position. He'd have to say yes but he still doesn't know why.
"I have no felonies. I've no convictions. I have a very clean background," Goad said. "But somewhere in there, it wasn't good enough. And if that's not good enough, I don't know what is for them."
Again, we reached out to Metro multiple times, especially about the examiner's bizarre questions. We still have not received answers.
They also haven't answered how much the polygraph process costs you, the taxpayer, or how many polygraph examiners Metro employs.
The base salary for that job on Metro's website is between $85,000-$122,000 per year.
While completing a basic polygraph course is required, there are no requirements for any education or background in behavioral science.
