Do the police employ psychics?

Factual Questions
1

Do they or don’t they? There’s gotta be a straight answer to this question out there somewhere. On the one hand I hear “psychics” such as Allison DuBois claim that they have been called upon to solve crimes. I’ve heard other “psychics” make similar claims. I’ve also heard neutral parties make claims which would support this, such as the media accounts which indicated that a psychic had been consulted with during the Hillside Strangler case in Los Angeles in the 1970’s. On the other hand, Detective Benson’s character once said in an episode of Law & Order: SVU that no psychic had ever helped any criminal justice agency solve any crime, ever. Despite the fact that this is a fictitious show, the statement has an authentic ring to it, as if the script writer drew it from an authoritative source.

If I had to hazard a guess as to what the straight dope is on the matter, I would guess that if a criminal justice agency receives a tip from a “psychic”, they process it with the same protocols that they would any other tip, and investigate accordingly. But no police agency has ever actively solicited help from a psychic. Is this what’s actually going on? Moreover, when the “psychic” is actually right just out of pure dumb luck, they jump up and down and say “see—I solved the crime”, and this is what leads the public to believe that they aided the investigation. Is this also an accurate assessment?

2

The police are not a monolith. I would not be surprised if police somewhere have brought in psychics. Psychics may have even helped doing random crap works a surprising amount of the time.

3

How can police hire something that doesn’t exist?

First off, let’s clarify one thing. There has never been a crime solved by the use of psychic powers. All claims to the contrary are lies. If you can find a cite that proves otherwise (PROVES, not CLAIMS), then you can turn the scientific world on its ear.

That said, I heard a detective (on a documentary, not in person) once say that police welcome when self-proclaimed psychics start making media proclamations about older cases, if only because it gets the story back in front of the press and can lead to interest from the public – and hopefully tips from people who know something. That they’ll take any publicity that can help them solve a case.

So no, the cops don’t pay psychics so they can make vague statements like “the body is near some water” and promote themselves. And no, I have done zero research on if a police force was idiotic enough to pay someone who claims to be a psychic, but I can guarantee it wasn’t a “real” psychic.

4

A lot of the time when ‘psychics’ claim to have ‘been consulted’ what they actually did is show up and make a statement about a case that was in the media. Police are generally obliged to take statements about cases, even if they are a waste of time. The psychic babbles, and goes out to tell the press how they helped solve the case.

Beyond that, what filmyak said.

5

Isn’t there a reality cable show about “Psychic Detectives”? CourtTV or Bravo maybe? If anyone is a local to events on one of the episodes, maybe they could provide feedback.

6

The team investigating the Boston Strangler used the services of Dutch psychic Peter Hutkos as detailed here. It was politicians rather than police that instigated his involvement.

As the piece concludes:

*The Strangler Bureau’s credibility suffered on account of Hurkos. *

7

I have aboslutely seen reports where cops with a big murder with absolutely no leads have brought in a psychic, usually as a last resort. Usually a small town.

8

Are there any major police agencies who consult psychics? My wife was playing a Patricia Cornwall book-on-tape one time where the main character goes to a woman dubbed “psychic to the Secret Service”. I completely lost interest at that point.

Thanks,
Rob

9

From the UK:

We’ve all heard the claims and seen uncritical and credulous reporting in the media of so-called psychics helping the police. The impression given is that the police call in psychics when they get stuck on a case. This is not true. The police do not use psychics at all.

http://www.ukskeptics.com/article.php?dir=articles&article=police_and_psychics.php

Many police departments around the world have released official statements saying that they do not regard psychics as credible or useful on cases.
…
No psychic detective has ever been praised or given official recognition by the F.B.I. or US national news for solving a crime, preventing a crime, or finding a kidnap victim or corpse.

But what about testimonials from experienced homicide detectives who have actually used psychics? Most reported successes appear to be like the one that a New Jersey police captain attributed the late Dorothy Allison. Her predictions “were difficult to verify when initially given,” he said. “The accuracy usually could not be verified until the investigation had come to a conclusion.” Indeed, this after-the-fact matching–known as “retrofitting”–is the secret behind most alleged psychic successes. For example, the statement, “I see water and the number seven,” would be a safe offering in almost any case. After all the facts are in, it will be unusual if there is not some stream, body of water, or other source that cannot somehow be associated with the case. As to the number seven, that can later be associated with a distance, a highway, the number of people in a search party, part of a license plate number, or any of countless other possible interpretations. Many experienced police officers have fallen for the retrofitting trick.

http://csicop.org/specialarticles/police-psychics.html

10

I remember about this-it was an extremely embarrassing period for the Boston Police Dept. Not only did (Hurkos) provide NO useful leads, he made a complete fool out of himself! :smack:

11

Just as a data point, there is one of our board members who claims that the police do indeed use psychics successfully. Start reading this Great Debates thread [post=9331876]around here[/post]. Note: The poster’s claims have met with some skepticism in the discussion.

12

I guess whoever brought in the psychic has as much right to believe stupid crap as any one else. I could see a department doing so to get some publicity for the case, though. Maybe.

13

Where are the reports? Can you link to them? Dates? Times? In other words: cite?

Note that there are any number of cites available on the web in which various police departments describe how in instances of big murder with absolutely no leads psychics jam their noses in unasked. Solid cites for the police bringing in psychics are few and far between indeed.

14

May I point out that a psychic’s website making claims they are used by police and have solved crimes is not evidence of anything.
What we need is a decent cite from a police force, which has not been forthcoming.

I could easily set up a website saying that NASA would not have reached the Moon without my mental powers protecting the spacecraft. :eek:
But you should look for confirmation from NASA before you believe this.

15

Separate questions, separate answers.

Are there psychics who claim that they have helped to solve crimes, locate dead bodies or missing persons and so on? Yes, many.

Are there people who believe that these psychics have, in fact, materially helped in the solving of crimes, in ways that cannot be easily explained without the ‘psychic powers’ hypothesis? Yes, some people do believe this, including some police officers, some scientists, some researchers and some writers. You can read a book called ‘The Blue Sense’, by Marcello Truzzi among others, which documents the evidence supporting this view and makes a good case, although not a compelling one.

Are there some experienced and respectable police officers and detectives who believe that psychics can sometimes be useful in solving cases? Yes, but they are very, very few. It is not a view that is widely supported within the law enforcement community. However, when you think of how many people worldwide are involved professionally in some aspect of law enforcement, you can probably find six of them who believe anything.

Are the claims made by these psychics, or made on their behalf by fans and admirers, often exaggerated out of all proportion to the psychic’s actual role in any given case? Yes.

Do some people who sincerely believe they are psychic, and who believe they can help with a case, often offer their help (unbidden) to the police? Yes. It happens a lot. It is obviously the case that if enough supposed psychics make enough guesses and suggestions about a case over a period of time, then some of these guesses may eventually turn out to be correct or almost correct. I can always tell which card you’ve drawn from a shuffled deck, if I’m given 52 guesses. Or if 52 of us all make one different guess.

What is the official police line? It varies from place to place. In general, you will find very little enthusiasm for so-called psychics among experienced officers and detectives. However, there is a difference between actual police practice and PR. Law enforcement officers cannot be seen to be rejecting offers of help, and they cannot be seen to be openly dismissive of well-meaning meaning people who come forward and say ‘I have information that can help solve this horrible murder and catch the crook’. Whenever there is a major case, part of the police role is to gather and collate any and all information, even if it may initially seem to be irrelevant or unhelpful. So if a guy wanders in and says ‘I can help’, they listen and make a note. Even if they think he’s a raving nutcase.

Are these so-called psychic sometimes actually unhelpful? Yes, of course. Some police officers wll tell you that the time taken up dealing with so-called psychics is time wasted, and time that could have been better spent on actual productive police work.

Is there any good reason or good evidence in a scientific sense to support the hypothesis that people with psychic powers can sometimes help in the solving of crimes? No, not yet.

Is it a nice idea that might sometimes give hope and comfort to relatives and loved ones who happen to believe in this sort of thing? Yes.

Is it an exciting, headline-friendly idea that might give a journalist something to splash at the top of a story? Yes.

Do police authorities sometimes appoint someone in an official capacity to liaise with or deal with psychics? Yes, this has happened, although not often. But it is open to interpretation. The psychic says, ‘Look, they value my input so mch that they have appointed an official police liason officer to work with me’. Another source might say, ‘We have to have a way of containing and controlling these deluded but well-meaning people, and to stop them wandering into the office at random, making wild suggestions to the press or otherwise interfering. If we appoint what we say is an official liaison officer, we can keep them happy while containing the damage they might do’.

As is always the case when ‘psychic ability’ is discussed: psychic powers are as real as you want them to be. If you are selective enough with the evidence, you can make a plausible case for anything. Putting it another way: faith plus bias is an open equation - it can add up to anything you want.