1
Sep
2015
By Calvin at 12:34 GMT, 8 years ago
I saw on the news last night and in some papers over the weekend that an update of police policy by the College of Policing in respect to consulting people who claim to possess extrasensory perception is proving to be somewhat controversial.
These are some extracts from the consultation document published by The Telegraph on 29 August 2015
- "High-profile missing person investigations nearly always attract the interest of psychics and others, such as witches and clairvoyants, stating that they possess extrasensory perception.
- "Any information received from psychics should be evaluated in the context of the case, and should never become a distraction to the overall investigation and search strategy unless it can be verified.
- "These contacts usually come from well-intentioned people, but the motive of the individual should always be ascertained, especially where financial gain is included.
So far, so good!
Then it all gets a bit murky.......
- "The person's methods should be asked for, including the circumstances in which they received the information and any accredited successes."
According to The Telegraph the College of Policing has explained that "accredited success" means “previous cases where they have given police information that turns out to be correct."
When has it ever????????? (Psychic information, that is)
Might I suggest that if the College of Policing is advising police to find out if the psychic has previous accredited successes they might turn to an organisation such as the James Randi Educational Foundation. (JREF)
This foundation promotes a challenge to all types of psychics and will pay One Million US Dollars to any person who demonstrates any psychic, supernatural, or paranormal ability under satisfactory [scientific] observation. If the psychic gets through these tests then they would certainly be worth listening to!
Has anyone passed the JREF preliminary test since it began in 1964? - NO
I understand that there will be times when in desperation the family of a missing person might turn to a psychic for help, but according to The Telegraph report even the Missing People charity have stated that their research concluded that “no interviewees reported significant findings or comfort from the experience of consulting psychics or mediums."
Might I also suggest that the College of Policing take a look at this page from the JREF website for a sort of round-up of how this organisation views the psychic’s help and perhaps add the following to their guidance.....
There is no scientific evidence that supports the claims of psychics. When details of such cases have been examined, any sense of “success” can be attributed to confirmation bias, which is a tendency for people to favour information that confirms their preconceptions or hypotheses, regardless of whether the information is true.
Just trying to help....
Sources:
James Randi Educational Foundation: http://web.randi.org/
Missing People: http://www.missingpeople.org.uk/
Doubtful News: http://doubtfulnews.com/2015/08/uk-college-of-policing-allows-alarming-opportunity-to-accept-psychic-assistance/
