Blog: Investigating reports of missing people has changed significantly over the years, writes Chief Inspector Jason Wells from Telford Police.

In Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Gene Hunt’s day, a missing person report to the police would have been met with a response of ‘Give it a few hours, and if they haven’t turned up then, give us a call back’.

Indeed, many do come back in a few hours, but unfortunately many don’t, and that’s why police investigations into missing people have changed so considerably.

People go missing for all sorts of reasons – a family argument, a need for some space maybe, and they usually return a short time later when emotions have cooled.

Many of our missing reports come from care homes, where children who are in difficult circumstances anyway, decide to run away.

But there are also the reports that may hide something more sinister, where a person has been harmed in some way: Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, who went out together to buy some sweets in Soham; or Milly Dowler, walking home after school; or two-year-old James Bulger in Merseyside, are just some examples of missing reports as a result of some terrible wrongdoing.

Thankfully incidents like this remain extremely rare and police across the country continue to do all they can to make sure this remains the case.

Whenever a person is reported as missing, the police have to make a judgement on the risk of that person being harmed in some way, and that is often very difficult.

Some people who go just don’t want to be found and children running away from care homes are a good example of this. These children are often perceived as ‘street wise’, but they are also very vulnerable – they often have no money and no means of getting money.

Unfortunately they may turn to crime or, on occasions, will be befriended by people who use them and take advantage of them, sexually or physically.

That’s why a Gene Hunt response is not good enough any more, and the police today respond much more quickly and invest much more time and effort in investigating missing people reports.

The Telford & Wrekin Police Division launched 822 missing people investigations last year (2009/10), just over two a day on average, and each would have had at least one officer dedicated to that enquiry.

I am pleased to say that the vast, vast majority of these missing people were found safe and well.

Gene Hunt would probably say that proves that ‘giving it a few hours’ was right, but as a parent, I know if one of my children went missing, every second would count.