Fife police dealing with more than 2,200 calls regarding missing people every year.

Increased resources required for cases

More than eight calls to report a missing person are made to Fife police every day.

From April to December last year, officers dealt with 2,265 such calls.

Full missing person investigations were launched into 998 of the reports, each of which took up an average of eight “officer hours”.

Councillors were given the figures yesterday to illustrate the changing demands being placed on the force.

Chief Superintendent Derek McEwan said the presence of 39 care homes in Fife, accommodating looked-after children from all over Scotland, was one reason for the high numbers.

In his report, the Fife Division commander said: “The nature of calls that the police are attending has changed significantly, with more and more concern for person calls being received.

“Many of these calls are in relation to missing person reports/inquiries.”

Mr McEwan said a partnership group formed for missing people in December 2018 had resulted in around 90 fewer calls a month to Fife Division.

He added: “This work continues and Police Scotland remain vigilant in our investigation and recording of missing persons and the severity of each individual report.”

Most calls reporting a person missing last year were resolved relatively quickly.

Less than half of the cases were progressed to the stage where the individual was officially recorded as missing, sparking an investigation.

Councillors were told very few missing person reports end in tragedy.

There have been a number of highprofile hunts in Fife in recent years. In September 2017, Libbi Toledo, 17, was found dead in Kirkcaldy after a nine-day search.

Less than a year later the body of student Duncan Sim, 19, washed up in St Andrews three months after he disappeared following a night out.

On Sunday the body of 72-yearold Robert Brown, of North Shields, was found after he boarded a train in Kirkcaldy for Newcastle.

The highest volume of missing person calls in the nine months to the end of last year – 629 – were from the Kirkcaldy area. Mr McEwan said this was due to it being the location of Fife’s A&E centre and Whyteman’s Brae Hospital.

Of the 998 calls which resulted in someone being recorded as missing, 584 related to children, with 378 of those for looked-after children.

Mr McEwan said neighbouring Tayside and Edinburgh had “nowhere near” as many children’s homes as Fife.

He said: “We have four local authority care homes and 35 private care homes for looked-after children.”

Missing person cases are considered a high-risk policing area, Mr McEwan said, and given appropriate priority and resource.

Where a missing person is deemed at high risk of harm, he said, every police officer available will “down tools” and be drafted into the hunt.

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Police Scotland remain vigilant in our investigation and recording of missing persons and the severity of each individual report.

CHIEF SUPT DEREK MCEWAN