Polygraph Testing of Officers Blocked

A Superior Court judge granted a temporary injunction Friday blocking the Los Angeles Police Department from continuing to administer polygraph tests to officers seeking promotions or transfers--a practice that dates back about 20 years.

The tests have been performed routinely, especially for officers applying for jobs in the narcotics division, where applicants are often questioned about whether they have used drugs. Organized crime, anti-terrorist and vice units also used the polygraph as part of the screening process for applicants in those sensitive areas, but are now barred under the order approved Friday by Judge Robert H. O’Brien.

Although O’Brien did not spell out his reasoning, lawyers for 15 police officers and their union, the Los Angeles Police Protective League, had argued that the polygraphs were mandatory for all officers seeking promotions to those units and therefore violated the officers’ rights not to be compelled to take polygraph tests.

“We’re real happy about this ruling,” said Daniel K. Ohl, an Orange County attorney who represents the officers and the league. Although the judge’s order is only a preliminary injunction, it goes into effect immediately, and Ohl said he will seek to have the order made permanent when the two sides return to court later this month to discuss other issues in the case.

Leslie E. Brown, an assistant city attorney who represents the city in the suit, said the department will immediately halt the use of polygraphs for officers applying for promotions or transfers. The department also uses polygraphs to perform pre-employment screening of prospective police officers, but that use of the polygraph was unaffected by O’Brien’s order.

“We’re very much inclined at this point to go the appeal route,” Brown said. “We think we have a reasonably good chance of having it overturned.”

Brown said the Police Department’s case rests largely on two grounds--that the LAPD’s use of the polygraph does not violate the state’s Police Officer Bill of Rights because that law is meant to cover disciplinary hearings, not promotion applications; and that the polygraph should be allowed because officers were not required to seek positions in the units that used the polygraph to screen applicants.

But Ohl and the police union argued that the officers were compelled to take the polygraph in order to be eligible for certain transfers or promotions, and therefore the department was breaking the law. All of the 15 officers named in the lawsuit were denied positions at least in part because the department was not satisfied with the results of their polygraph tests, Ohl said.