Skeptics Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for scientific skepticism. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
At this current point in time (within say the last 5 years) are there any police departments or emergency service organisations which employ a psychic?
It shows up occasionally in movies and I'm sure there are TV series based around it. It sometimes turns up as a reality TV show topic.
Official police responses for the employment of psychics to solve cases are found here and per Cecil in 2000, "some police are hesitant to refuse any aid, no matter how little they think it will actually help." Except for USA, police departments from UK, Australia and Canada do not use psychic consultant information in their investigation per evidence listed below.
USA: Results from a police department survey in 1993 indicates that there is not a prevalent use of psychics among the police departments of the largest cities of USA. A third of them had accepted predictions from psychic detectives in the past, although only seven departments treated such information any differently from information from an ordinary source. No police department reported any instances of a psychic investigator providing information that was more helpful than other information received during the course of a case, since any information has to be proved, only information matching other evidence could be used.
UK: 28 British police forces responded to the Association for Rational Inquiry's query in 2006 to say that they did not and have never used psychics.
Australia: "The Australian Federal Police (AFP) takes seriously all allegations of misconduct by officers, and does not condone the use of psychics in security matters." A senior Australian Federal Police officer was suspended in 2006 for consulting a clairvoyant over a threat to assassinate Prime Minister John Howard.
Australian Institute of Criminology in 1988 states, "Desperation can force people to consider options they would never entertain in more stable times, but however desperate you become do not resort to the psychics and mystics who invariably approach parents in this situation. Such people will charge you large amounts of money but do not help you."
Canada: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police states in its site that, "Criminal Investigative Analysis (CIA) cannot replace a thorough investigation; and the accuracy and detail of a CIA is limited by the accuracy and detail of the information on which it is based. CIA does not use crystal balls or psychic experiences; it is a logical, systematic approach for analyzing behaviour."
Per Slate in 2013,"Many police departments prohibit psychic consultations altogether. Those that allow the use of psychics often do so only when the victims’ family requests a consultation. Detectives might also call in a psychic to unnerve a suspect: If they know he’s superstitious himself, the mere mention of a psychic during questioning might cause him to confess."
Per Joe Nickell in 2005, "psychics do not solve crimes or locate missing persons unless they employ the same non-mystical techniques as real detectives: obtaining and assessing factual information, receiving tips, and so on, even sometimes getting lucky." The claim of the psychic detective was again found to be untrue in the case of alleged psychic consultant Allison DuBois in 2011.
