Police failing missing people

A RESEARCHER from the University of Portsmouth have published a ground breaking report that says it’s ‘just a matter of time’ before a missing person comes to serious harm due to police budget cuts.

Dr Karen Shalev Greene, director of the Centre for the Study of Missing Persons at the University of Portsmouth, polled more than 373 police officers and discovered a fifth had received no training in missing person cases.

The report found some officers are assigned to work on more than 30 missing person cases a week.

Dr Shalev Greene said: ‘We found overwhelming evidence among police officers and staff at all levels around the lack of robust training in handling missing people investigations.”

‘Demand on the police outstrips supply of officers consistently, in every department for almost every type of crime, but it appears to be particularly acute for missing people investigations.

‘People who go missing can be at very high risk of harm, but the numbers just aren’t there to protect them.’

Low morale, lack of training, too few staff, and poorquality investigations meant it was ‘just a matter of time’ before a missing person case resulted in serious harm, according to Dr Greene.

She said: ‘It’s not just those who go missing who are at increased risk of coming to harm, police officers themselves are feeling exposed, their own wellbeing is threatened and many talked of burnout.’

Over 150,000 people go missing in the UK annually.