Presentation by Professor Nick Fyfe, Director - Scottish Institute for Policing Research at the Police Foundation's conference 'Policing and protecting vulnerable people' 5 November 2015.

1. ‘To the end of the world’:
the policing of missing persons
Professor Nick Fyfe
Director, Scottish Institute for Policing Research
& School of Social Sciences, University of Dundee
Police Foundation Conference
November 2015

2. The presence of absence…

3. The challenge of missing persons I
• Over 300,000 missing person’s incidents are recorded by
police per year;
• A person in the UK is recorded missing by the police every
2 minutes;
• 3 million police hours spent on medium risk investigations a
year in England & Wales
• Two thirds of reports relate to those under 18;
• 80% of reported missing persons will return within 24
hours;
• Over 2000 missing people remain absent a year after going
missing and 20 people a week are found dead after being
reported missing.

4. Decided
(64%)
Drifted
(19%)
Unintentio
nal
absence
(16%)
Forced
(1%)
Relationship
breakdown
Escape
Mental
health issues
Lost contact
Transient
lifestyle
Dementia
Mental
health
Accident or
harm
Miscommuni
cation
Victim of
crime
The challenge of missing persons II
Why people go missing

5. Geographies of Missing People
• Three year ESRC funded project working with MPS and
Grampian Police, received the ESRC Impact in Society
award 2015.
• Interviewing a sample of returned people reported
missing focusing on their ‘missing journey’;
• Interviewing local police officers and carrying out case
reconstructions to examine police organisational
responses to specific missing person cases;
• Interviews with a sample of families of people reported
missing in order to understand how families mobilize and
deploy their own resources to search for missing relatives
and loved ones;

6. The policing of missing persons
• Scenario-based searching and narrative
construction;
• Investigation as a ‘craft’ or ‘science’;
• Reputational risk;
• Working with families.

7. Scenario-based searching: Caitlin’s case
• ‘Going by the state of the property, it was clear she
might not be of stable mind.. It just builds a bigger
picture that a bit more of a concern. Speaking to
neighbours, speaking to the ex-boy-friend, by the
end of the shift, I was thinking this person would
be found dead in the next few days
• Found safe and well 7 days after disappearing

8. Scenario-based searching: Adam’s case
• There were a few possibilities of what could have
happened to him: it could be a deliberate
disappearance which didn’t seem particularly
likely; he could have suffered some sort of
accident like falling into the river, probably the
most likely – or he could have been the victim of
some sort of criminality
• Found drowned after missing for 3 months

9. Investigations as a ‘craft’ or ‘science’
• [For] a lot of missing person [investigations]
… you go by your guts really. It’s what you
think, what do you think this person has
done’ (POLSA);
• The problem with missing person searches
is its not a science. It’s very difficult to say
‘This is what you must do’. (POLSA)

10. Child aged 5–8 years
30% (350m)
50% (550m)
70% (1,100m)
80% (1,300m)
90% (1,800m)
Place Missing From

11. 1000 m
Circle
Place Missing From
- School
Place
Found
850 m

12. Reputational Risk:
defining ‘the end of the world’
• Say a small child wanders off from a primary
school, you’d probably never call an end of
the world [but] an old lady with dementia you
probably will quite quickly. So when you’re
faced with what you can call your end of the
world that’s when you’re talking about
boundaries (POLSA).

13. Family search: key drivers
•Lack of knowledge of police search
•Dissatisfaction with police search
•Emotional management tactic

14. Family perceptions of good police practice
– ‘They were very, very quick at getting searches up and running so
there was no need for us to do anything like that.’ (Alice, daughter)
– ‘I think there was a bit of ownership there as well, “this is one of
ours”. So they were absolutely determined. And certainly the CID
sergeant, his thoughts were “that could have been my mum” and I
think that’s what they were holding onto, that could be them and what
would they want done?’ (Alice, daughter)
– ‘I will always be so grateful to them (the local police) for using that
phrase : “it’s our duty to find him for you.” And they rang me
afterwards and they were excellent.’ (Aileen, sister)

15. Good practices cited by families
• Police officers agreeing regular call times for new sharing.
• Police officers calling every few months in long term cases.
• Notifying families when officers change on the case and
introducing new officers with good hand-over.
• Promoting local force ‘investment’ in locating the missing
person.
• Referring families to the Missing People charity.
• Police officers sharing search tasks with families in
partnership work.

16. Some Questions for Discussion
• How can the police manage the demands of
missing persons investigations?
• What roles/responsibilities do other agencies have
in missing persons cases?
• Are there ways of enhancing the role of families
and the wider community in missing person
cases?
• Where are the main gaps in our knowledge about
missing persons and how could these be
addressed?

17. Thank You
Website:
www.geographiesofmissingpeople.org.uk
Contact details: n.r.fyfe@dundee.ac.uk