Did Christopher Robinson provide psychic information that was successfully used by Scotland Yard?

Question

Christopher Robinson, who calls himself the Dream Detective on his web-site and book by the same name, claims that he has worked with police, assisting their investigations with his psychic visions.

He came to the attention of Scotland Yard, London England’s Police Department in 1984 and has had regular contact with either police or Intelligence officers from Customs and National Criminal Intelligence ever since. He has been able to provide then with warnings of serious crimes and terrorist activities on the UK mainland. Police officers with who he has worked have confirmed in public, that they evaluate the content of his dream messages and have monitored him for many years.

Are these claims true?

Answer 1

The organisation UK Skeptics looked at this issue in 2003.

They wrote to all of the different police commissioners in the UK asking:

would it be possible for you to provide details of where, when and at what cost such psychics have been used - if at all - within your force’s jurisdiction?

They received replies from 26 forces. All of them, apart from the Metropolitan Police (i.e. Scotland Yard) varied from "No, we don't use them.", "No, we are not aware of using them," to "No, the information we have received from them has been no value."

They received two from Scotland Yard.

The first stated:

Thank you for your email - I have passed this to the Freedom of Information Unit but as far as I know we have not and do not use psychics.

The follow up stated:

We have conducted a search of our indexes but have been unable to identify any relevant records relating to any official use of psychics. There is, however, a historical case where this played a major part. This case related to the disappearance of Thomas Alfred MARKS in 1965. The records relating to this case are now held by The National Archives at Kew under the references MEPO 2/10551 to MEPO 2/10558. The tape recording is under the last reference, MEPO 2/10558. This particular record is available but some parts of the record are closed as it remains an unsolved case.

In conclusion, Scotland Yard denied, in 2003, that Christopher Robinson helped them in 1984.

Answer 2

I can't post comments here as I don't have the required repution (50) for the 'privilege' to post comments on other questions. I was made aware of these two videos by Chris Robinson which features two detectives and a former RAF serviceman.

Strange But True? 1

Strange But True? 2

There's a Detective Sergeant Richard McGregor in video one and (retired) Detective Chief Inspector Alex Hall of Regional Crime Squad, they mention Bedfordshire police. Chris Robinson quite possibly still lives in Dunstable, Bedfordshire so that tallies.

Detective Sergeant Richard McGregor in video one says: "he is designated a contact and then really we act as a filter to see what he is saying and try and make something of it."

In video two the narrator Michael Aspel says: "for six years Regional Crime Squad Detective Chief Inspector Alex Hall was allocated to be his police contact."

I think the question is a bit narrow in scope as it should include the other police constabularies (they don't regard themselves as a 'police force' but 'police service'). In addition we didn't start using police commissioners until November 2012, before then their role was carried out by a police authority (made of local councillors, independent members of the community and magistrates).

There's a few things about the UK Skeptics article (Rational Inquiry?)(2) I'll focus on as it has a number of caveats:

Not all forces responded; however, there are enough replies to conclude that the police do not systematically and actively make use of psychics.

The question the article asks is "Do the UK police use psychics?" not whether they "systemically" and "actively" use them.

In the letter written by the article's author Eddie Silence to the police authorities, he said:

Ms. Blears responded, saying records are not kept centrally, and that the use of ‘psychics’ was a matter solely for the commissioners (1) of respective police forces in the UK.

Here are some interesting responses:

NORFOLK POLICE

Mon, 27 Feb 2006 12:54

To my knowledge, there would be no way of keeping records on matters of this nature as they would be individual policy decisions made by individual Senior Investigating Officers.

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DYFED-POWYS POLICE

16 Mar 2006

I am informed that Dyfed Powys Police has never used psychics.

Even though the author appends a link from a Daily Mail article in which detectives from Dyfed-Powys Police had acted upon information provided by psychic mediums. Although Eddie Silence states "This instance seems to have been the action of individual officers rather than being official policy of Dyfed Powys Police". Right, which means that police have worked with psychics then. Whether or not its policy is irrelevant, particularly when Chief Constables and their detectives are given discretion on the matter.

I found this FOI document by Dyfed-Powys Police.

BEDFORDSHIRE POLICE

16th March 2006

Following your request, searches were conducted at Bedfordshire Police. These searches failed to locate any records relating to your request based on the information you provided. Accordingly I have determined that the information to which you seek access is not held by Bedfordshire Police.

I would recommend reading this BBC article which explores the subject a little.

I think it's important to be sceptical of everything, not just people who claim to have psychic abilities but also those that 'cross-examine' them. Do your own research and come to your own conclusion.

1. again we had no police commissioners at the time, he meant chief constables.

2 all the correspondances from the police constabularies were dated 2006 not 2003