A psychic detective uses psychic power to solve mysteries. This so-called psychic power is the ability to use one's intuition along with the help of a higher power or source of energy to know about things that most others can't see or feel. Psychic power allows a person to predict or recognize the past and understand clearly what has happened. This ability is possessed by a very few people and these people, also known as psychics are being sought out by come law enforcement agencies to clear unsolved mysteries and solve crimes.

The police use psychic detectives to assist them in difficult cases such as kidnapping or murder, when a stalemate is perceived. The first official use of a psychic to solve a crime can be dated back to 1845. Psychics are allegedly able to locate missing people or recognize a person who has committed a crime. They use techniques like psychometrics (understanding a person by touching the person or an object that belongs to the person), telepathy (mentally communicating with a person), numerology (psychic reading using numbers like date of birth) or dowsing (looking for hidden things by waving a stick or any other apparatus near the ground) and others.

General psychic abilities include clairvoyance or seeing pictures, visions, and images via a sixth sense and clairaudience, hearing thoughts of the living and the spirit realm in the form of voices, sounds or music. Clairsentience is the ability to sense information through smell, touch, taste and other physical sensations.

Psychic detectives use intuition and reasoning abilities for solving crimes. However, there is criticism of psychic detectives. Many police departments are skeptical of the supernatural and won't employ psychics. To date, there is no documented evidence of a case being solved with the help of a psychic detective.