El Paso, TX -- (SBWIRE) -- 06/26/2012 -- The RRA Center, developer of the world's first automated human trust and risk assessment system stated its technology can replace a handheld polygraph, which according to US Department of Defense (DoD) studies has questionable accuracy rates.

Commander Ivan Ortega of the RRA Center has responded to worldwide inquiries about the next-generation Remote Risk Assessment (RRA) system. "The overwhelming interest in RRA has resulted in new opportunities across the globe. We received many questions about the differences between RRA and polygraph. Many asked why a handheld polygraph was issued to the US military after scientific studies showed this device had poor accuracy rates. The DoD Polygraph Center's own validation study of this device showed it could only correctly identify the truth 50% of the time. That is no better than flipping a coin. It is a national embarrassment the US Army issued hundreds, perhaps thousands, of these devices to its combat soldiers."

"The low accuracy rate of this device is well known to US Army polygraph officials. The US military actually restricted the sale of this device; it cannot even be sold to US law enforcement agencies. The rules for using this device are quite clear. It can only be used on non-US persons and then only in overseas locations. Some have speculated the US Army's rules for using this device may violate the human rights of non-US persons. Why is this device approved for use only on non-US persons, but restricted from use on US citizens? In my opinion Congress should scrutinize this program. It appears to have been poorly conceived and hurried through the procurement process without appropriate oversight. Also, senior military officials are aware of a voice-based technology that has existed for years and was proven to be over 90% accurate in combat environments, including Iraq and Afghanistan. This technology is being used throughout the US on a daily basis by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies for truth verification - and its use on US citizens has been upheld by State and Federal Courts. In my opinion, the circumstances surrounding the handheld polygraph are bizarre at best, and at worst the result of a corrupt and unsupervised military procurement process."

"It is also interesting that General David Petraeus, former Commander of US and NATO Forces in Afghanistan and the current CIA Director, supports the use of 21st Century technologies. General Petraeus was the architect of the US Army's Counterinsurgency Manual, FM 3-24, which recommends the use of both voice and biometric technologies. RRA is exactly this type of technology. Unfortunately, the US Army Intelligence branch, called the 'G2', requires its soldiers to use the old-fashioned polygraph - which in my view is little more than digitized 1950's technology. In my opinion such decisions have, in part, allowed 'Green on Blue' attacks to continue in Afghanistan. These criminal attacks by Afghan military and police members are now occurring regularly and have resulted in the killing or wounding of scores of US and NATO members since 2007."

Ortega stated the purpose of RRA is to evaluate human trust and risk factors that impact upon suitability, loyalty or trustworthiness. "RRA is now being implemented globally to enhance the personnel reliability programs of forward-thinking institutions. RRA is simple to use, reliable, accurate, cost-effective, and easy to deploy. And, RRA can conduct thousands of trust assessment screening interviews per day, which makes it ideal for high-volume security screening operations."