Psychic Detectives (existence, not validity)

[Rhythmdvl]

This is NOT a thread about the validity of psychic detectives. Menocchio’s thread in GD reminded me of a conversation I had with my fiancé a while back. Neither of us grants any credence to the apparent abilities of psychics, so again this is not a question regarding their supposed efficacy. However, we did disagree about police department’s credulity regarding such psychics.

The question for GQ then, is whether or not there is a legitimate news account of a police department voluntarily bringing in a psychic to help with an otherwise dead-end case. Not a self-aggrandizing psychic lamenting that the police could have asked them all along, but a police official who does watch John Edwards (winner of the BDOTU award) and who did have the temerity to admit soliciting such services. Whether or not the psychic was helpful or not is irrelevant—we’d just chalk it up to coincidence or some other tomfoolery. But we disagreed as to whether or not any police force has actually turned to such methods in desperation.

Thanks,

Rhythm

[billfritter]

I agree that those guys are all scam artists, hoping for a little ink to rope in desperate relatives of other victims for “consultations” or “inquiries”.

But what makes you think cops are immune to this sort of thing?
With millions (?) of cops throughout the country, the laws of chance say there have to be thousands who are sympathetic to such nonsense, just like the rest of the population.

[Larry_Borgia]

@billfritter

I agree that those guys are all scam artists, hoping for a little ink to rope in desperate relatives of other victims for “consultations” or “inquiries”.

But what makes you think cops are immune to this sort of thing?
With millions (?) of cops throughout the country, the laws of chance say there have to be thousands who are sympathetic to such nonsense, just like the rest of the population.

Yeah, but the OP isn’t asking whether it’s possible, but whether it’s actually happened. You’re right that it’s depressingly likely that some policeman somewhere has fallen for psychic BS, but I’d also be interested to see if it did in fact happen. It’s a good question, unfortunately I don’t have an answer.

[UncleBeer]

There are many cases where police have acted on tips provided by “psychics,” in their efforts to solve a crime. This isn’t quite the same as the cops actually taking the initiative of consulting a “psychic,” but it is similar. Here’s one such case from Belgium:
http://www.csicop.org/sb/9703/belgium.html

This story even goes a bit further, but the way the information is presented, it seems to be unconfirmed third-party info. Take it for what it’s worth:

Minister De Clerck also confessed that the Belgian Gendarmerie “has not had much experience with psychics” but that a number of well-known foreign police forces, like the FBI, Scotland Yard, and the Dutch criminal police, have used the services of psychics. The Gendarmerie even stated that Scotland Yard has psychics as official experts. Asked for a reaction, the British skeptic Mike Hutchinson said that “Scotland Yard doesn’t have official [psychic] experts” and that “it is most unlikely that any police force has official psychics, although psychics do claim that this is the case.” The reference to the Dutch police seems to be to an article about missing persons and psychics published in a Dutch scientific police review. While this critical paper states explicitly that “the practical informative value of paranormal statements made by psychics can be neglected,” it recommends verification of tips coming from a psychic if the family of a missing person requests it.

I’m certain tho’, that I remember reading something recently in either Skeptical Inquirer, or Skeptical Briefs which fits your query precisely. I’ll look through my recent back issues this evening.

In the meantime, you may find this additional info useful:
http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/police-psychics.html
http://www.csicop.org/si/2005-07/i-files.html

[Q.E.D]

Evidently you people don’t watch much CourtTV. Obviously there are enough cases to keep the showing going. Depressing, really. I hate the idea of the show, and I’ve never watched it.

[UncleBeer]

@Q.E.D.

Evidently you people don’t watch much CourtTV. Obviously there are enough cases to keep the showing going. Depressing, really. I hate the idea of the show, and I’ve never watched it.

Never watched it, either. But reading thru some of the stuff linked there, I don’t see anything which demonstrates conclusively that the cops are taking the initiative in contacting a psychic. I couldn’t find a single instance where that has happened. There’s some commentary which implies that has happened, but the author(s) haven’t given us a specific example.

Everything I saw indicates that the initial contact went in the other direction; a psychic made the initial effort to talk to the cops.

When investigators have exhausted every lead and turned over every stone. When detectives are out of time and out of luck. Where do they turn? Law enforcement has developed an arsenal of tools to help stalled investigations. But how often do they actually enlist the help of a psychic? Psychic Detectives tells the true stories of real cases where psychics help detectives solve some of law enforcement’s most baffling cases.

The question the authors are asking in that paragraph, which is equivalent to the question in the OP here, is never answered as far as I can tell.

Here’s the best affirmation of the direction of contact, I can find there:

Do the Police Really Use Psychics?

Nickell published several articles in Psychic Sleuths to the effect that while most police officers or departments take psychic information under consideration, they do not actively seek out such help—at least not under official channels. Under anonymity, several people have indicated to this author (Ramsland) that psychics have been brought into cases despite prohibitions against it.

Color me skeptical.

And I didn’t get around to my back issues of Skeptical Inquirer last night either. Sorry. Mebbe next week.