Thematic inspection of police response to missing persons in Scotland

Police Scotland should promote the national missing person framework’s aims, objectives and commitments to officers and staff across divisions, and emphasise that this underpins its strategic direction.

Police Scotland should ensure that there is consistent national leadership in place to direct missing persons policy, establish outcome targets and support effective operational delivery.

Police Scotland should re-establish the missing person strategic governance forum to provide scrutiny, oversight and governance for matters relating to the police and partner response to missing persons.

Police Scotland should bring together all operational practice guidance relevant to missing persons in one place on the police intranet – including protocols and procedures, shared learning, and the national missing persons toolkit – to enable easy access for managers and staff.

Police Scotland should review the training provided to officers and staff regarding missing persons and ensure that it is adequate and meets the requirements of the role.

Police Scotland should develop a role profile and operational guidance for divisional coordinators, and ensure that the role is supported and enabled to fulfil tasks and responsibilities effectively.

Police Scotland should develop a version of the national missing persons application that has full functionality on mobile devices, and respond swiftly to any technical problems and potential improvements identified by users.

Police Scotland should continue to engage with partners and service providers at a national and local level to encourage greater adherence to the collective commitments of the national missing persons framework. This should include engagement on the implementation of early intervention and prevention approaches, and the use of national and local protocols.

Police Scotland should ensure consistent and effective communication and engagement takes place with families, carers and key contacts throughout investigations.

Police Scotland should work with partners to ensure that clear and co-ordinated arrangements are in place to conduct return discussions across divisions. These should align effectively with safe and well checks, and all relevant information gathered from such discussions should be shared between partners.

Police Scotland should routinely evaluate the quality of its missing persons operations to pinpoint areas for improvement, using that knowledge to drive improvement, reduce demand and improve outcomes.