Missing People Website

Information for the police

Click here for more information about the police conference Missing People – Beyond the National Protocol Agreement

Missing People is dedicated to working with every police force in the UK to ensure the welfare of any missing person and to address the anxieties of those left behind. This has been formalised in the National Protocol Agreement (NPA) which creates a single national mechanism for data exchange between police and Missing People. The agreement creates a gateway through which to access the range of services that Missing People offers to support police. These services are just a phone call or an email away - at no charge to police.

“Working with agencies outside of the police force is important for finding the missing, and I believe it is vital for police to co-operate with organisations such as Missing People whose remit is to care for the vulnerable. It is communicating and sharing information which helps us maintain our success rate. Partnership working is vital to what we do.”
DI McManus, Redbridge Missing Persons Unit, Metropolitan Police

Missing People aims to provide a professional and competent service to police officers and recognises that a missing person report could be the start of a major crime enquiry. We work with many other agencies on a practical and strategic level and may be able to offer advice on cold case reviews or offer further contacts to you. The charity has a wealth of experience specifically in missing and unidentified cases (whereas police officers may deal with many types of case). Existing relationships include Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Border & Immigration Agency (BIA), Interpol, NHS and letter forwarding agencies.

How it works

We proactively contact police officers to offer help on both missing and unidentified cases which have been sent to us via the protocol agreement where we feel help may be needed. Please feel free to contact us sooner, particularly if you feel publicity is needed. We can help!

Missing People adheres to the Data Protection act 1998, the Human Rights act 1998 and professional guidance.

Missing People services include:

• Family support - provision of practical and emotional support for the family/carer of the missing person. The charity never closes a case until the missing person is located so can provide sustained contact with the family and if necessary long term publicity
• Publicity - access to media partners and publicity opportunities for both missing and unidentified cases which may not otherwise be easily accessible to police. These include local and national media features. In many cases publicity will result in new sightings of those featured. The charity also produces and distributes posters
• Alternative contact - out of hours telephone contact, or a means to pass on information to those who may not wish to speak to police
• Enquiries to trace a missing person - using existing relationships with letter forwarding agencies
• Identification - provision of forensic artwork for missing people (image enhancement and age progression) and forensic artwork for unidentified people (post mortem image enhancement and facial reconstruction); and database searches to cross match unidentified persons with missing reports. We also register unknown next of kin cases

"With help from the Missing People charity we have had a digitally enhanced image of the [unidentified] victim prepared and we believe someone will be able to identify him from this poster.” DS Gareth Willis, Preston CID, Lancashire Constabulary

• Missing abroad - we can use this website to publicise a case, and produce posters in foreign languages for use in a local area
• Contribute to case reviews - for long term missing people to assist in any reassessment of risk and identify possible investigative options

"Your efforts and timely interventions have given us pointers towards other teams that held sufficient information to prevent further wasted time."
Police Sergeant Isley, Cambridgeshire Police