Nearly 6,000 missing person cases for South Yorkshire

SOUTH Yorkshire Police dealt with 5,980 reports of missing persons last year, new figures show.

That’s 16 calls every single day.

A detailed breakdown of the figures shows that the 5,980 incidents related to 3,874 different individuals – 1,765 adults and 2,109 children.

Neil Bowles, Chairman of South Yorkshire Police Federation, said: “We have to make time to deal with the ones that are deemed high risk, which is when there is obviously a concern with threat and/or harm to any missing person. There are a finite number of 0fficers available and hours in the day; if this is a top priority for our members, it just means that some other part of police work will not get the attention that it used to.”

A report by the National Crime Agency’s Missing Persons Bureau showed that nationally, there were 315,517 missing person reports in the last financial year – up from 307,418 the year before.

That works out as more than 6,000 missing persons reports each week – or 864 a day.

Nationally, children and teenagers accounted for more than half of all cases (54%).

Three quarters of reports were resolved within a day and 85% within 48 hours.

The majority (96%) of people reported missing were found safe and well.

For the first time the figures for England and Wales include a breakdown of how many individuals were the subject of those calls.

The 275,000 calls received by forces related to 137,000 separate individuals, meaning a number of cases involve people going missing multiple times.

Joe Apps, head of the NCA’s UK Missing Persons Bureau, said: “These figures offer an important insight and demonstrate that we need to keep striving to understand the reasons why people go missing in the first place.

“Fortunately the vast majority of cases are resolved quickly and result in people returning safe and well, however we should remember that each involves an individual and can cause great distress to their loved ones.

“Missing episodes can be indicators of other vulnerabilities – including mental health issues, physical abuse or sexual exploitation, so we need to maximise our efforts to keep vulnerable people safe and support those affected by missing events.”