Police Appointee Controversy Probed

By ALLEN WIGGINS and ROBERT G. McGRUDER

For years, Cleveland's safety director has given rubber stamp approval to the police chief's screening procedures on new patrolmen.

But last week those screening procedures were challenged when Director Joseph F. McManamon appointed at least 60 men of whom Chief Patrick L. Gerity disapproved.

McManamon overruled Gerity by appointing to the force men the police department would not recommend because of their backgrounds, including homosexual acts. thefts, police records and use of drugs.

INVESTIGATION of the controversial cases shows that nearly all result from differences between lie detector tests and psychological tests. Chief Gerity depended primarily on reports from his polygraph experts. McManamon compared the polygraph reports with summations by psycholgists. He had both reviewed by psychia-

trists.

The Plain Dealer studied 53 disputed cases plus more than 100 others.

It would appear that both sides lacked information sufficient to make solid judgments.

In the current crop of tests, the key man for the police department was the pv-

lygrapher. In some cases the wording of the department's negative recommendation was taken directly from the polygrapher's report.

Consider this 26-year-old police candi-

date:

Gerity's report on him said, "Not recommended. Polygraph admissions of use of two marijuana cigarettes, plus unresolved polygraph deceptions which indicate considerable use of narcotics (marijuana) and commission of undetected crimes."

IN A POLYGRAPH interview each applicant is given a chance to make pre-test admissions. In the test proper, the polygrapher asks 13 basic questions.

Most questions are innocuous, but the

central questions ask whether the candidate has engaged in oral or rectal sodomy with a male, whether he has stolen anything worth more than $35, whether he has used narcotics, whether he has committed an undetected crime and whether he has been a member of a subversive group.

The candidate is then given another chance to make any admissions he hail neglected before.

The 26-year-old in this case had admitted smoking two marijuana cigarettes "eight or nine months ago," according to the report. The polygrapher added that he "didn't care to tell the location" of the party where he smoked the cigarettes.

Continued on Page 11, Col. 1