Center for Problem-Oriented Policing

Understanding Your Local Problem

The information provided in the previous sections is only a generalized description of missing persons problems. Analyzing your local problem carefully will help you design a more effective response strategy. National data can present a large-scale snapshot of the missing persons problem, but you will need to assess the extent of your local problem and the relative proportion of different missing persons categories to allocate resources appropriately.

Stakeholders

In addition to criminal justice agencies, the following groups have an interest in the missing persons problem, and they should be considered for the contribution they might make to gathering and sharing information about the problem and responding to it:

Local government agencies

Child protection agencies
Foster care providers
Victim services
Coroner and medical examiner offices
Public safety communications
State missing persons clearinghouses
Mental health centers
Veterans Affairs departments
Local, county, and state emergency managers

Social service organizations

Runaway shelters and service providers
Guardian homes
Assisted living facilities
Homeless shelters and service providers
Domestic violence shelters and service providers
Sex worker service providers
Faith communities
Emergency medical service providers
Employers
Schools
National centers with databases for missing persons and unidentified dead
Mass media

Asking the right questions

The following are some critical questions you should ask in analyzing your particular missing persons problem, even if the answers are not always readily available. Your answers to these and other questions will help you choose the most appropriate set of responses later on.

Missing persons

How many missing persons are there in your jurisdiction? Are these trends stable over time?
How does the number of missing persons break down by the different categories of missing persons?
Within each category, what are the likely reasons the person went missing? Relationship issues? Legal issues? Substance abuse? Mental illness?
For each missing persons category, what is the age, race, gender, and socioeconomic breakdown of the missing in your jurisdiction?*
What percentage of missing persons cases are unfounded, and what is the nature of these cases (i.e., why were they reported missing, and why was the report later determined to be unfounded)?
What is the average amount of time missing for each missing persons category, and what percentage of missing persons cases are still unresolved after one month, six months, a year? What is the nature of unresolved missing persons cases?
For those who returned on their own, did they return to the place they had left? If not, what other places are return sites?
Where did missing persons go while they were missing?
What percentage of missing persons are repeats (i.e., have been reported missing before), and what is the nature of repeat-missing cases (e.g., runaways from care, elderly with dementia)?
How long are the different types of missing persons missing? For each category of missing, what is the time lag until discovery, and what factors contribute to the time lag?
What percentage of missing persons have orders of protection against another person, and what percentage have histories of domestic violence victimization?
What percentage of missing persons have mental health issues? What percentage have attempted or threatened suicide?
What percentage of missing persons incidents involve some sort of arrest? What is the nature of those arrests?
What is the nature of runaway cases? What is the average age and demographic profile of runaways?
Are missing persons being victimized while they are missing?
How often is foul play suspected in missing persons reports? If these cases are handled differently, what is the difference?

* Some states have commissioned counts of the actual numbers of missing and murdered Indigenous people (MMIP) in their states.

Reporters, caregivers, and custodians

What proportion of runaways run away from custodial care, assisted living, or foster care?
Who makes missing persons reports (e.g., family, partners, friends, employers, schools), and how are these reports made (by phone, in person)?
For those missing persons who did not return on their own and were discovered, where were they discovered, and by whom (police, family, others)?
What percentage of juvenile runaways are arrested and officially processed by the juvenile justice system, and what determines whether an arrest is made versus an informal response?
How do missing persons cases affect those who reported them as missing? What resources are available for the families and friends of the missing?
Are there complaints from the community about how police handle missing persons cases?
What advocacy groups in your community work with family and friends of the missing to provide additional resources, including lists, photos, and descriptions of missing persons?

Third parties

What proportion of missing persons went missing with another person? Who are these other people?
Does the agency have an up-to-date list of registered sex offenders in the area?
What percentage of incidents involve crimes such as child molestation, kidnapping, rape, homicide, illegal immigration, or human trafficking?
Are there offenders in your area who have been linked to other cases of missing persons (e.g., child abductions, child molestation, violence against sex workers)?
For chronic runaways, are there parents or other guardians who should be investigated for abuse and neglect?
Are missing persons engaging in criminal activity while missing? What types of crime do they commit? Are they repeat offenders?
What proportion of found runaways are located while residing with someone who harbored them?
What is known about harborers and their motives for harboring runaways?

Locations/times

Where do the different categories of missing persons go missing from—schools, home, child custodial care, adult facilities (day centers, nursing homes, assisted living facilities)?
Are missing persons reports coming from certain places in your jurisdiction? Are there hot spots for missing persons reports?
Are there locations where missing persons are commonly found? What is known about those places?
Are missing persons reports seasonal? Do they occur more frequently after special events or on certain days of the week?

Current responses

What services have been used or could be used to remedy the chronically or repeat missing?
Are cases removed from NCIC within three days of discovery?
Are all local missing persons cases shared with the state clearinghouse for missing persons, NCMEC, and NamUs?
Does your agency have a family liaison for all missing persons cases?
What is your agency’s policy for accepting missing persons reports for persons with outstanding warrants?
What do police and other local agencies do to encourage missing persons reports and to follow up on their resolutions?
What is the policy of the prosecutor’s office regarding runaways and harboring runaways?
What services exist in the community to prevent persons from going missing and to encourage their safe return?
What percentage of missing persons use relevant services after their return (e.g., shelters, electronic tracking aids, counseling)?
What is your agency’s agreement with other entities for searches (e.g., internal search teams, search teams from other agencies, K-9 search)?
What partnerships exist between your agency and domestic violence shelters?
What cooperative agreements exist between your agency and other law enforcement agencies to assist in missing persons and related investigations?
What cooperative agreements exist between your agency and schools, hospitals, runaway shelters, and child protective services, including for foster children and other children in care, regarding the release of protected information needed in missing persons cases?
Are fingerprints of missing persons retrieved (e.g., from records systems or personal items) and entered into the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS)?
Are dental records (or at least the name of the missing person’s dentist) retrieved for persons missing longer than 30 days?
Has DNA been collected from family members for a possible later match to unidentified dead?
Has missing persons information been compared to local coroner and medical examiner records of unidentified dead?

Measuring your effectiveness

Measurement allows you to determine to what degree your efforts have succeeded and suggests how you might modify your responses if they are not producing the intended results.

You should take measures of your problem before you implement responses, to determine how serious the problem is, and after you implement them, to determine whether those measures have been effective. Where possible, you should take all measures in both the target area and the surrounding area. For more detailed guidance on measuring effectiveness, including outcome/impact measures and process measures, see Problem-Solving Tools Guide No. 1, Assessing Responses to Problems, 2nd Edition (https://portal.cops.usdoj.gov/resourcecenter?item=cops-p034) and Problem-Solving Tools Guide No. 10, Analyzing Crime Displacement and Diffusion (https://portal.cops.usdoj.gov/resourcecenter?item=cops-p167).

The following are potentially useful outcome measures of the effectiveness of responses to missing persons; they enable you to determine the impact of your strategies on the overall problem:

Reduced number of missing persons
Increased number or percentage of missing persons located and returned home safely
Decreased length of time persons are missing
Increased number of missing persons reports (if there is reason to believe that a significant percentage of missing persons are not reported to police)
Reduced harm occurring to missing persons while they are missing
Reduced number of repeat or chronically missing persons

The following are potentially useful process evaluation measures for missing persons; they will measure the extent to which your various strategies were implemented as planned:

Increased number of missing persons using referral services
Reduced amount of time between the time a person is last seen and the time police are first contacted
Reduced time and resources needed to search for and recover missing persons
Improved early identification of high-risk cases most likely to involve endangered missing persons
Increased satisfaction with police services for missing persons