If Ted Pulver walks into your office with his leisurely smile and chummy handshake, someone has hired him to be there, and someone may have broken the law.


It could be you. It could be a colleague. Whoever it is, Pulver is there to find out what you know.


Hell start off amicably. One of his philosophies is that its effective to be friendly at first and get tough later if necessary, but its impossible to get information when you start out with a confrontation. Wearing a golf shirt and khakis, hell put his feet on the desk, tell you what hes looking for, and start off by asking questions with a what-nice-weather-were-having nonchalance.


Its best to tell the truth, since theres a 97 percent chance that eventually hell find out if youre lying.


Pulver owns and is the sole employee of Pulver Investigations & Polygraph Inc., a Post Falls-based private-investigation and lie-detection company with an office in Spokane and clients nationwide.


Pulver splits time evenly between working for private companies and public agencies. In the public sector, he contracts out his polygraph services to several local agencies, including the Washington state Department of Corrections and U.S. Probation Office. In some cases, he tests paroled sex offenders to find out whether theyve broken the law since theyve been released. Other times, he tests candidates for high-security positions to determine whether theyve been truthful about their pasts.


Subtle sleuth work


With private companies, the jobs usually involve fewer polygraph tests and more subtle, yet swift sleuthing.


Sometimes, when businesses are actual crime victims, they dont have the patience for the police, he says. Oftentimes, Im called in because someone wants to take care of a situation quickly and quietly.


For example, if a bank is being bilked from the inside, the institution generally wouldnt want to initiate an investigation that would draw attention and potentially scare off customers. In such a situation, Pulver could be called upon to weed out the thief.


Hed start by interviewing employees. While he wouldnt bring in the polygraph machine right away, the lie detector in Pulvers headthe one thats developed and matured over more than 20 years of investigative workwould kick in immediately. After doing his interviews, hed have a short list of suspected thieves and people he suspected of withholding information.


Pulver typically would whittle down the list with more interviews, shedding the good-guy act and questioning suspects veracity when necessary. Usually, hed bring in the polygraph machine to get to the bottom of things.


At that point, theyre done bluffing when theyre looking at doing a polygraph, Pulver says. They usually say, Lets make a deal.


In many cases, Pulver adds, a business is willing to forgo criminal charges and perhaps even offer some sort of severance package if an employee who has stolen from the concern returns the money or goods and agrees to reveal the weakness in the companys security system that allowed the theft to occur.


Pulver declines to name local companies that have hired him, but says national companies for which hes conducted investigations include Bank of America, First Interstate Bank, and Burger King Corp. Other types of businesses that have hired him include jewelry store chains and bonding companies.


Lie detecting


While a polygraph machine isnt used in all private investigations, its an integral part of Pulvers business.


The device works differently than many people might suspect, Pulver says. While some people think the machine gauges nervousness, it actually monitors brain activity and reactions of the nervous system.


For example, if a man has killed a woman, the murderer has seen the terror in his victims eyes, has smelled her perfume, and has experienced other sensations unique to the crime. Those memories would come back when the killer was asked about the crime, Pulver says, and lying would trigger a detectable, physiological reaction in the brain. The polygraph machine would pick up on that activity, he says.


When they manufacture a story, its more taxing for their brain than if they are recalling a memory, Pulver says.


On the other hand, an innocent person will be nervousmost people are when being polygraphedbut he or she wont have a recollection of the crime and, therefore, wont fail the polygraph test, he says.


Polygraph machines have become more accurate in recent years. Pulver says the machine he uses, which looks like a customized laptop computer, is considered 97 percent accurate. In the early 1990s, polygraph experts considered the machines available then to have accuracy rates between 87 percent and 93 percent.


The biggest difference, Pulver says, is that new, computerized machines include a database of thousands of confirmed reactionseither confirmed innocent or confirmed guiltyand scores on new tests can be compared with past test results. While Pulver still scores the tests manually as he always has, he can compare his findings with those of the computer. He says the computer takes some of the subjectivity out of the job.


Generally speaking, a polygraph test consists of a series of questions that require short answers. Often, similar types of questions are asked in similar circumstances.


Falling into a job


Pulver says he literally fell into his line of work. He served as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army in the mid-1970s. After jumping on a training mission, his platoon accidentally was shelled with live ammunition, and, while running for cover, he ran into a tree and speared out his right eye. After he recovered, Pulver was placed in an intelligence unit and, after a while on that job, learned that he had a knack for interrogation.


After he left the Army in 1977, he and a partner set up a polygraph business in Los Angeles with the help of the federal government. The company was called Pulver, Morse & Associates.


In 1985, after marrying a North Idaho woman, Pulver moved to Post Falls and took a job with the Kootenai County Sheriffs Office. All the while, he remained involved in the polygraph business in Los Angeles, flying to California for a few days each week to tend to clients there.


In 1989, Pulver quit the Kootenai County Sheriffs Office and started Pulver Investigations & Polygraph, in Post Falls. He sold his interest in the Los Angeles company shortly thereafter.