Public release date: 2-Feb-2007
(CBS 11 News) DALLAS It’s a crime fighting tool that’s often kept a secret.
It’s called forensic or investigative hypnosis, and Dallas Police use it to spur the memory of a crime victim or witness.
When you think of hypnosis images of snapping fingers and a room lit by candles may come to mind, but you might want to think trained detectives instead.
“Forensic hypnosis is a much different twist,” said Dallas Police Detective B. J. Watkins. “Forensic hypnosis is nothing more than memory refreshing.”
Dallas police have been using hypnosis for more than 20 years to help solve cases.
“It’s nothing more than getting the person to relax and maybe to bring some things into the conscience realm that they have either repressed because of the trauma, or the stress or it’s something that they didn’t know they saw or heard,” Detective Watkins said.
He also said there’s no magic moment in the session. “If it’s not there, we can’t put it there. We don’t do suggestions in forensic psychology.”
Instead, it serves to give officers leads. “Normally it’s for someone who’s repressed what someone looks like, or it was a very quick look or it was the license plate of a vehicle driving away,” Watckins said.
Tom Pelt is a hypno-therapist. He says he’s used hypnosis to help hundreds of people quit smoking, lose weight and enhance their memories.
“If we could use and access our subconscious minds like we should be able to, you would be amazed at what we have stored up there,” Pelt said.
Detective Watkins says many times what’s store up there is the missing piece of evidence to close a cold case.
“Timing is everything. There are a lot of factors that go into that, the type of crime, the length of time, the person’s involvement,” said Watkins. “We don’t use it a lot. It’s not the answer for everything, but occasionally it does come in handy.
Ball, Kimberly (CBS 11 News)
