Penny Woolnough

Missing persons: the processes and challenges of police investigation

Responding to reports of missing persons represents one of the biggest demands on the resources of police organisations. In the UK, for example, it is estimated that over 300,000 missing persons incidents are recorded by the police each year which means that a person in the UK is recorded missing by the police approximately every two minutes. However, there is a complex web of behaviours that surround the phenomenon of missing persons which can make it difficult to establish whether someones disappearance is ‘intentional’ or ‘unintentional’ or whether they might be at risk of harm from themselves or others. Drawing on a set of missing person case reconstructions and interviews with the officers involved with these cases, this paper provides insights into the different stages of the investigative process and some of the key influences which shape the trajectory of a missing persons investigation. In particular, it highlights the complex interplay between actions which are ‘ordered and conditioned’ by a procedural discourse around how missing persons investigations should be conducted, and the narratives that officers construct about how they approach investigations which are often shaped by a mix of police craft, ‘science’ and ‘reputational’ issues.

Living Absence: The Strange Geographies of Missing People

In this paper ‘missing people’ gain an unstable presence through their (restaged) testimonies recounting individual occupations of material urban public space during the lived practice of absence. We explore ‘missing experience’ with reference to homeless geographies, and as constituted by paradoxical spatialities in which people are both absent and present. We seek to understand such urban geographies of absence through diverse voices of missing people, who discuss their embodiment of unusual rhythmic occupations of the city. We conclude by considering how a new politics of missing people might take account of such voices in ways to think further about rights-to-be-absent in the city.

Geographies of Missing People: Improving Police Knowledge and Response to Missing Persons

With an increased appetite for evidence-based policing within an Anglo-American context, advances in policing interventions, principles and strategies to reduce crime have gathered considerable pace. In contrast, while responding to missing persons reports is a large part of everyday policing, the associated research-base is in its infancy. Contributing to this paucity, this chapter draws on empirical evidence collected as part of an ESRC-funded study, the ‘Geographies of Missing People’. Making the case for the inclusion of narrative experience within policing practice, here we firstly outline the key elements of missing adults journeys as articulated by returned missing adults themselves and secondly provide insight into the search strategies and policing needs of families whilst their loved one is missing. In conclusion, we suggest that greater knowledge of missing geographies and family search, as articulated by those with first-hand experience, has relevance for improving police investigations and associated activities.