After four decades of the dubious practice, the Texas Department of Public Safety has stopped using hypnosis during police investigations. Still, evidence purportedly gleaned from hypnosis is admissible in Texas courts. From the Dallas Morning News:
The Texas Rangers are among the most prolific hypnotists in the state,The News found, performing at least 1,700 hypnosis sessions since the 1980s.
The Rangers used hypnosis to investigate an attempted kidnapping as recently as October 2020, just two months before the program was ended. Various officers at the Department of Public Safety performed a total of eight hypnosis sessions last year, including three that involved murder investigations, according to internal memos The News obtained through public records requests.
New information came out of seven of those sessions, the officers claimed. It's unclear whether that evidence will still be used in investigations of these alleged crimes now that the program has ended.
Even without the program, local police departments may still be using hypnosis to investigate crimes. More than 800 law enforcement officers statewide have been approved to use hypnosis as an investigative tool since the 1980s, and Dallas and Houston once boasted the most hypnotists on staff.
