What Happens When Someone Is Reported Missing in the UK? A Former Police Officer Explains

What do the police actually do if someone is reported missing, and do you have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing? And what if you are an adult who wants to disappear into the woods of your own accord. Can the police force you return home, or tell others where you are?

 

Do You Have to Wait 24 Hours to Report Someone Missing?

No. You do not have to wait 24 hours before reporting someone missing.

If you are genuinely concerned about someone’s safety or welfare, they can be reported missing immediately. If there is an immediate danger to life, you should call 999.

The idea that somebody needs to have vanished for 24 hours before the police will become involved is one of those things that has somehow embedded itself into popular culture. Thanks, Hollywood.

What Happens When Someone Is Reported Missing?

Once a report is made, the police need to establish exactly what has happened.

Who is missing? When were they last seen? Where were they going? What were they wearing? Do they have their phone? Have they taken money, clothes or their passport? Is disappearing completely out of character for them?

Police will also want information about the missing person’s physical and mental health, medication, alcohol or drug use, relationships, recent behaviour, possible exploitation, coercion, domestic abuse and anything else that might increase their vulnerability. Details of friends, family, associates, workplaces, schools and places they regularly visit can also become important.

 

What Checks Do Police Make for a Missing Person?

The first enquiries can be relatively straightforward. Police may search the missing person’s home and the location where they were last seen. They will search the home of the missing person. Especially crawl spaces and where someone may hide a body.

In my memoir ‘The System’s F*cked – The Unheard Voices of Forgotten Justice,’ a police officer detailed to me how they had spent weeks trying to find a female who had been reported missing. Her boyfriend was adamant she wasn’t in the house and he hadn’t seen her, and an officer made the suggestion they check the loft for a body. Unfortunately, the officer was right. Ther girl was found dead in the loft being feasted on by flies, and the boyfriend was arrested for her murder.

So police will check these places. They amy also speak to family, friends and associates of the MISPER (Missing Person).

They can check hospitals, police systems and custody records. Police will also trawl through CCTV, establish whether the missing person has access to a vehicle, obtain details of social media accounts and check places they regularly visit. Police are looking for clues and evidence of whereabouts.

Missing person investigations are about building a picture from hundreds of small pieces.

 

Can Police Track a Missing Person’s Phone?

Yes, they can, but often not with forensic accuracy like you see on television (unless they have access to apps with accurate location services like ‘Find my iPhone’ or social media maps.

Where there is significant concern for somebody’s wellbeing, police can consider obtaining live-time communications data, including relevant cell-site data, subject to the necessary legal authority.

 

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Can Police Check a Missing Person’s Bank Account?

Yes, providing it is justified through the risk of the person.

If somebody uses their bank card at a supermarket fifty miles away, suddenly the police have both evidence that the person may still be alive and a new geographical area to investigate.

Financial enquiries can include bank accounts and other records capable of helping establish somebody’s movements or lifestyle.

CCTV, Vehicles and ANPR

 

CCTV is another potentially huge part of a missing person investigation. Officers may look at cameras around the missing person’s home, their last known location and possible routes they may have taken. Police could also establish this to see if someone has potentially been abducted or coerced into exploitation.

Witness states they saw the missing person leave an address and get into a car. CCTV shows the registration of a the vehicle, and police track the vehicle to where it may have gone.

 

What Happens in a High-Risk Missing Person Investigation?

This is where the response can become much more resource-intensive. If police believe somebody is at serious risk of harm, specialist resources may be deployed.

That can include search teams, police dogs and air support. Depending on the circumstances, searches may also involve specialist water or underwater search capabilities and assistance from other organisations.

Ponds and rivers can be searched. Woods can be scoured. Mass fields and woodland can have dozens of officers deployed to locate the missing person. Police may attend the addresses of known associates and even force entry to complete searches if justified.

Police may also release a media appeal asking the public for information or sightings. I personally remember walking along the streets of a town, handing out missing person flyers of a young girl that had gone missing.

Photos can be shared to social media, mainstream news outlets, and more.

 

What Happens When a Missing Person Is Found?

 

Finding somebody doesn't necessarily mean the investigation immediately ends. Police need to establish that they have located the correct person and assess their welfare. Depending on the circumstances, there may also be safeguarding concerns, criminal offences or underlying reasons behind the disappearance that need addressing. The whole point isn't simply to change someone's status on a computer from missing to found. It is to establish whether they are safe.

 

Can an Adult Legally Disappear in the UK?

 

What happens if you're an adult, you're perfectly safe, and you've simply decided:

Fuck it. I'm disappearing into the woods.

Can you?

Yes. Yes you can. It is not illegal for an adult to go missing.

If police locate an adult who is safe, has capacity to make their own decisions and isn't subject to some other legal power requiring intervention, the police generally cannot simply force that person to return to their family because somebody wants them home.

And here's the part that surprises many people.

If you don't want your family to know where you are, the police will not normally disclose your location.

They can establish that you're safe and tell the person who reported you missing that you have been located without telling them where you are.

So somebody could potentially receive a message along the lines of:

We've found them. They're safe and well. They don't want their location disclosed.

And that's it.

Obviously, there are caveats. Safeguarding concerns, questions around capacity, offences, court orders and other legal issues can completely change the situation. But simply being somebody's parent, partner, sibling or friend doesn't automatically give you the right to know where an adult is.

If you enjoy deep dives into policing, crime and what actually happens behind the scenes of investigations, join my crime newsletter for exclusive content, deep dives,  news on books, and even a free prequel to my best-selling crime series.

 

Jay Darkmoore is a former police officer with nearly a decade of experience on the front line, who now uses his in depth knowledge to write cutthroat authentic crime thrillers.