Missing persons: the processes and challenges of police investigation

Abstract

Responding to reports of missing persons represents one of the biggest demands on the resources of police organisations. In the UK, for example, it is estimated that over 300,000 missing persons incidents are recorded by the police each year which means that a person in the UK is recorded missing by the police approximately every two minutes. However, there is a complex web of behaviours that surround the phenomenon of missing persons which can make it difficult to establish whether someone's disappearance is 'intentional' or 'unintentional' or whether they might be at risk of harm from themselves or others. Drawing on a set of missing person case reconstructions and interviews with the officers involved with these cases, this paper provides insights into the different stages of the investigative process and some of the key influences which shape the trajectory of a missing person's investigation. In particular it highlights the complex interplay between actions which are 'ordered and conditioned' by a procedural discourse around how missing persons investigations should be conducted, and the narratives that officers construct about how they approach investigations which are often shaped by a mix of police craft , 'science' and 'reputational' issues.

Suicide and Associated Vulnerability Indicators in Adult Missing Persons: Implications for the Police Risk Assessment

“…This utilises professional expertise and practitioner experience, along with reference and application to the APP risk assessment table, missing persons process chart and the national decision model (College of Policing, 2016). Police officers are routinely required to make their own assessment, determining validity, reliability and relevancy of the information presented, which will often draw on instinct and experience (Fyfe, Stevenson, & Woolnough, 2015). Research findings by Smith and Shalev-Greene (2015) identified that only 50 per cent of police officers in a supervisory role directly involved in the risk assessment of missing person investigations had read national guidelines or their force policy guidelines on missing persons.…”

Missing children: risks, repeats and responses

“…It covers, for example, adults who go missing for reasons of financial hardship, teenagers running away from residential care, children who are abducted, individuals missing in the wake of a disaster and persons who are simply waylaid or disoriented. Variation in the motivation behind and circumstances of missing incidents can make it challenging to ascertain a proportionate police response (Fyfe et al 2015) -all the more so if the available information is limited. Thus, although the vast majority of missing persons are located safely and within 24 hours (see Holmes, 2017), the police must respond with the knowledge that a small number of missing person cases involve an immediate threat to life (Newiss, 1999).…”

Adult Missing Persons: Can an Investigative Framework be Generated Using Behavioural Themes?

“…Consequently, increased understanding of factors which influence missing adults' behaviour would facilitate improved police investigation, risk assessment, and response. Developing an investigative framework could help inform officers' narratives of missing people (Fyfe, Stevenson, & Woolnough, ) in a more evidence based manner than at present. This would be similar to Behavioural Investigative Advisors use of thematic models in their investigation of sexual offences (Alison, Goodwill, Almond, Van de Heuval, & Winter, ) and the checklist used to assess the risk of contact child sex offences, for individuals found in possession of indecent images of children, KIRAT (Child Exploitation and Online Protection, ).…”