Safe & Well? Managing the
Return of Repeatedly Missing
People, in England & Wales
Michael Harris (Police Inspector(Acting) Avon & Somerset Constabulary)
And
Dr. Karen Shalev Greene (Centre for the Study of Missing Persons)
University of Portsmouth
June 2017
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Methodology
•
Police Constables across most Police Forces in England & Wales were invited to
complete an anonymous, web-based survey by clicking on a link provided via their
intranet or force email. The researcher, as an ‘insider’ was removed from that
process.
•
36 questions collected demographic data; Return Interview frequency experience;
classifications of who conducted RI’s within their area; thoughts on who they
thought should conduct RI’s dependent on circumstances; who should and should
not be prioritised for a RI; RI training levels.
•
Respondents were also asked Likert questions on RI engagement levels; usefulness
of the RI in preventing repeat episodes and determining causes. All quantitative
questions were coded into IBM SPSS for analysis.
•
Free text questions asked why respondents had given certain answers, which will be
coded into Nvivo to get qualitative results.
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1943
Total Constable Responses
Date Survey Finalised: January 2016
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Q1: What is your gender?
Answered: 1,928
Skipped: 15
Men statistically significantly older than women and have longer service within
population, possibly due to women leaving service earlier to have children? (p=.000)
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Q5: What is the highest level of education you have completed?
Answered: 1,911
Skipped: 32
Graduates were statistically significantly younger than non-graduates within population,
possibly due to increased popularity of university now? (p=.000 U= 72996.5 )
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Q6: Approximately how many Missing CHILD (under 18) returns have you
been tasked with, in the last 12 months?
Answered: 1,675
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Skipped: 268
Q7: Approximately how many of these CHILD returns were reported
missing repeatedly? (3 times or more)
Answered: 1,666
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Skipped: 277
Q8: Approximately how many Missing ADULT returns have you
been tasked with, in the last 12 months?
Answered: 1,660
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Skipped: 283
Q9: Approximately how many of these ADULT returns were reported
missing repeatedly? (3 times or more)
Answered: 1,659
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Skipped: 284
Q10: Within your Police Force, who conducts a more in-depth return
interview with a Missing CHILD? (select all that apply)
Answered: 1,616
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Skipped: 327
Q11: Within your Police Force, who conducts a more in-depth return
interview with a Missing ADULT? (select all that apply)
Answered: 1,615
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Skipped: 328
Q15: In your view, who is most appropriate person to conduct a more indepth return interview for a missing ADULT? (select one)
Answered: 1,179
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Skipped: 764
Q17: Would your answer for choice of interviewer be different for a
missing ADULT with an additional vulnerability (e.g. physical or mental disability)?
Answered: 1,131
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Skipped: 812
Q18: Therefore, in your view, who is the most appropriate person to conduct a more
in-depth return interview for a missing ADULT with an additional vulnerability (e.g.
physical or mental disability etc)? (select one)
Answered: 379 Skipped: 1,564
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Q19: In your view, who is most appropriate person to conduct a more indepth return interview for a missing CHILD (under 18)? (select one)
Answered: 1,026
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Skipped: 917
Q21: Would your answer for choice of interviewer be different for a
missing CHILD with an additional vulnerability (e.g. physical or mental
disability)? Answered: 1,096 Skipped: 847
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Q22: Therefore, in your view, who is the most appropriate person to conduct a
more in-depth return interview for a missing CHILD with an additional
Answered: 240 Skipped: 1,703
vulnerability (e.g. physical or mental disability etc)? (select one)
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Q24: Thinking about the most common type of missing person in the last
12 months, how engaged were they with you in the return process?
Answered: 944
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Skipped: 999
Q28: In the last 12 months, has information about missing persons from
third parties been shared with you? (e.g. Social Services, charities)
Answered: 1,024
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Skipped: 919
Q29: Did you find that information from the return process in the last 12
months, has helped you understand the CAUSES of the missing episode?
Answered: 1,012
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Skipped: 931
Q30: In your opinion, did you find information from the return process in
the last 12 months, prevented future missing episodes?
Answered: 1,018
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Skipped: 925
Untrained officers are overwhelmingly doing the most Adult RI’s
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Men do the least RI’s with Repeat Mispers, whom
overwhelmingly account for less than half of their RI experience
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Men choose Social Workers to RI a missing adult, whilst women choose
NHS staff (p=.052)
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Priorities for a Return Interview (RI)
• Graduate-educated respondents didn’t feel a Police Officer should RI a
child
(p=.054)
•
Post-Graduates were twice as likely than non-graduates, to prioritise for RI those at
risk of Child Sexual Exploitation (p=.080)
•
Where officers whose RI experience of repeat child mispers was low, only 1%
prioritised first-time missing people for RI. (p=.055)
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Where officers whose RI experience of repeat child mispers was high, only a third
prioritised children for a RI. 54% of officers with least repeat child misper
experience did prioritise children. (p=.055)
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When asked who officers would least prioritise for a RI, there were
significant gender differences. (p=.000)
Men outweigh women in not prioritising missing men.
Only one woman chose a man!
Men outweigh women in not prioritising repeat mispers,
at 22% v 13% (nearly double)
Women outweigh men in not prioritising older or vulnerable adults,
at 15% v 10%
Women outweigh men in not prioritising child repeat mispers,
at 30% v 22%
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When asked who officers would least prioritise for a RI, there were significant
differences dependent on RI experience of repeat child mispers. (p=.001)
Officers most experienced at RI’s where children are repeatedly
missing (27%), are most likely to say they should not be prioritised for
a RI, against those least experienced with RI’s for child repeats (9%).
Those least experienced with RI’s for child repeat mispers were more
likely to say adults (38%) and vulnerable adults (17%) should not be
prioritised.
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Return Interview Engagement
Those reporting high RI engagement by the misper are twice as likely to not
prioritise vulnerable adults for a RI, but half as likely to suggest adults should
not be prioritised for a RI. (p=.001)
Those reporting low RI engagement from mispers are twice as likely to say
repeatedly missing people should not be prioritised for a RI, and even more so
for child repeat mispers. (p=.001)
Those reporting lower RI engagement, were also much less likely to agree “free
will” misper cases should be prioritised for a RI.
(p=.001)
Non-graduate officers were the most positive about misper engagement in the
RI. (p=.005. u=28737 )
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Gender
Female officers were more positive than men about the
RI helping them understand causes of the missing
episode. (p=.005. u= 88893)
Female officers were also more positive than men
about RI’s helping prevent future missing episodes
(p=.049. u= 92867.5 )
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Return Interview Training Levels
Those RI-trained…
..tended to be younger than those officers who were not RI-trained. (p=.011.
u=55300.5)
..are more positive about thinking the RI can help in preventing future episodes.
(p=.002. u=53882)
..are more likely to be positive about the RI helping determine the cause of missing
episode. (p=.000. u=51468)
..were more positive about 3rd party information-sharing taking place (sometimes),
versus those untrained. (p=.005. u=54186.5)
Those who are not RI-trained have the longest service. (p=.000. u= 51940.5)
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RI Training levels continued…
Out of those trained to conduct a RI….
..no-one thought a missing boy should miss out on a RI.
..were nearly three times more likely to say a man should not be
prioritised.
Those unsure about their training status were twice as likely to say
that those who exercised “free will” should not be prioritised for a RI.
Also, they were twice as likely to say the decision should be on a caseby-case basis.
(p=.004)
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Free text answers (sic) revealed interesting cultural opinions by officers
“Persons who are going missing from care homes. The youth
element who are only classed as risk because of age. They get on
a train, turn there phone off and avoid police. Perhaps a criminal
conviction for wasting police time as there was never a risk to
them.”
“Genuine proper ‘missing from homes’ and ‘concern for safetys’:
not the nonsense daily habitual child missing from homes and
adult cry for helps – who no partner agencies should deal with”
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Free text answers (sic) revealed interesting cultural opinions by officers
“Repeat callers or individuals that appear to use the police system
to care and look for people that are not interested in doing it
themselves. Simply to not act as a baby sitting or ‘bring them
home’ service.”
“Adults over 18 who decides to go for a walk or to socialise to
calm down after a verbal domestic, and then the family decide to
call police because they have never done this before.”
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..and more positively….
“I don’t think any (mispers) should be least prioritised.. It’s our
job to manage the safe return of people who are missing. A job
should be dealt with from start to end. It might prevent it from
happening again, and if not there is intelligence to be gained
which may result in a quicker find next time .”
“All should have an in-depth return interview. If you are reported
missing for any reason, this should warrant an interview,
regardless of circumstance, unless it is clear that it was a
misunderstanding or that the person was absent, not missing ”
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Thank you for listening….
Any questions?
Michael Harris
Twitter: @mfharris1
Email: [email protected]
Karen Shalev Greene
Twitter:@shalevGreene
Email: [email protected]
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