Huge strain on police to find missing
Resources stretched – with just one force dealing with 30 reports a day
TENS OF thousands of people are reported as missing across Yorkshire every year placing a huge demand on the county’s police forces, The Yorkshire Post can today reveal.
The county’s four police forces received more than 30,000 reports of people missing during 2018/2019 alone.
Yorkshire’s largest police force – West Yorkshire Police – recorded a total of 18,629 reports of missing people. Of that figure, 18,596 were found alive, 13 were found dead and 20 are still to be found.
Statistics released to The Yorkshire Post also show there were 8,341 reports of people missing in South Yorkshire, more than 5,000 incidents in Humberside and 2,787 cases in North Yorkshire.
West Yorkshire Police’s Assistant Chief Constable, Catherine Hankinson, who is also the National Police Chiefs Council’s lead for Missing Persons, said: “Missing people and that wider vulnerability have a huge demand on all police forces across the country.
“There is lots we can learn from each other and partnerships and there is some great work going on, but it does have a lot of demand on services.”
In the last month alone, West Yorkshire Police officers have been dealing with an average of 34 missing persons cases a day – a reduction on the previous year when the figure was up to 50.
Ms Hankinson explained how every missing persons call that comes into the force control room is assessed using a system called THRIVE, which assesses the threat, harm and risk of an individual.
She said: “The first port of
call would be to look at he risk that person poses to themselves and to other people. We would look at what data we hold on that person and what our partners know about that person which might help us to form that picture around the risk that person poses.
“We also think about the individual circumstances that are being reported to us. So for example, if a young person had left school early and not got home when they said they would but there are lots of reasons as to them pushing boundaries and instead they are more than likely to be with friends having tea, compared to an adult who has left a note to say they are going to cause themselves some harm and have left home in very unusual circumstances, then clearly the risk around this individual is greater and therefore a priority.
“We take on board a number of different factors – what is presented to us as the immediate picture, what the wider picture is and what information do we and our partners already know. We try and pull together that picture and decided whether we allocate it as a high, a medium or a low risk.”
Police said there are a huge range of reasons why people go missing, but a large majority are due to mental health issues and as a result police are working with health partners.
Ms Hankinson said: “Mental health is a big part of daily demand for policing. We deal with
all manner of incidents where mental health is an underlying factor.
“Call operators will do an initial assessment that will clearly play a part in whether someone has a good capacity to make decisions for themselves or not, which then might mean the risk is raised if they are missing.
“If someone goes missing and they have a mental health contact, our officers on the front line have a direct contact where they can ring and triage and jointly assess the risk that person poses.
“Forces across the country do lots of work around strategic demand locations – these are places that we know create a lot of demand because of the environments - they are, for example hospitals where there are people with complex needs.”
Missing people and that wider vulnerability have a huge demand
Assistant Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police Catherine Hankinson.
MODERN POLICING is far more complex today compared to the era, not even a generation ago, when most communities still had their own dedicated beat bobby. Now the relentless rise in online crime, and increased awareness about issues like mental health, are providing immense challenges for Yorkshire’s forces at the end of a decade dominated by austerity.
Yet the very fundamental of policing – a duty to protect the public – has not changed and this is why the Government now looks to look again at the issue of police priorities and funding. It has already acknowledged that its cuts went too far, hence Boris Johnson’s commitment to restore, at the very least, police numbers to 2010 levels, but there also needs to be an understanding about how the rise in those reported missing, for whatever reason, is adding to the workload of forces – and public expectations.
In the past 12 months, the county’s forces dealt with more than 30,000 inquiries over missing people – each and every case having to be treated as, potentially, a serious crime until the individual in question has been traced. And while the overwhelming majority of cases were quickly resolved, the police know that the criticism will be vehement if they cut corners and a vulnerable person meets a tragic end because of inaction on their part.
It’s all the more reason as Catherine Hankinson, Assistant Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police, explains how this issue is changing the dynamics of her constabulary’s work, that the police have the support of all agencies – and the wider public – when it comes to missing people. And it is also another important reminder, if one was needed, about the role, and responsibility, of society per se in looking out for the vulnerable, isolated and lonely – and making sure relatives, and the necessary public services, are informed of any concerns at the earliest possible opportunity.