RESEARCH
work), Moderators/contextual factors (the circumstances under which they work), Implementation (how they are implemented) and Economics (what they cost). This theoretical framework was used to help policymakers and police officers gain a structured overview of the existing evidence. In doing so, it was intended to support informed judgments about whether the current empirical knowledge is robust enough to inform policy development and practice.
WHAT APPROACHES DID THE REVIEW IDENTIFY? The synthesis of results revealed evidence relating to the following seven key approaches used by the police when responding to missing incidents:
• Adopting ‘missing’ and ‘absent’ at risk
• Risk assessment and management plans
assessment for proportionate response
approach worked and the strength of its impact. For example, the adoption of the ‘absent’ definition in the UK pilot risk assessment scheme highlighted promising initial outcomes, such as reducing police resources required for these investigations. Yet, this practice was finally withdrawn in 2017 due to practical inefficacy, indicating a disconnect between early descriptive results and real- world utility. This shows the value of further field research with robust evaluation methods to track long-term effects.
THE FOCUS REGARDING MECHANISMS AND MODERATORS About one-third of the sources reviewed
implementation, but this evidence is largely descriptive rather than evaluative. This points to the need for more robust assessment of training content and delivery methods to support effective responses to missing-persons cases.
“Future research should therefore focus on explaining how particular police practices deliver improved outcomes in different missing person contexts.”
• Safeguarding measures at the point of location or return
• Aid tools and search strategies • Establishing dedicated teams • Legislative Acts and measures
• Partnership working with local agencies and young people
WHAT IS THE FOCUS OF AVAILABLE EVIDENCE? Across papers, findings suggest that established investigative approaches, such as structured risk assessments, search and rescue strategies, and police dogs, continue to play a central role in missing person enquiries. At the same time, there is a notable shift toward including tech-based interventions, including social media platforms, unmanned aerial vehicles, and advanced DNA methods. These developments appear to have contributed toward incremental improvements in missing people investigations. However, evidence is limited when assessing against the full EMMIE framework, providing a limited understanding of whether approaches work, how, for whom, under what conditions, and at what cost.
THE FOCUS REGARDING EFFECTS Half of the sources reviewed provide only descriptive outcomes rather than robust measures of effectiveness. This suggests that, in many cases, the evidence tells us what happened but not how well an
examined how specific police practices work, spanning five of the seven approaches identified. Just five studies considered how specific contextual factors (e.g. demographics, time) influence outcomes, with evidence found across only three approaches. This highlights how limited the current evidence remains on how and why police interventions succeed or fail in different circumstances. For policy makers and operational leaders, understanding effectiveness alone is not enough. They also need insight into the conditions under which practices work best. Future research should therefore focus on explaining how particular police practices deliver improved outcomes in different missing person contexts.
THE FOCUS REGARDING IMPLEMENTATION CONSIDERATIONS Most sources focused on how police practices are implemented to locate and safeguard missing persons, covering all seven approaches. This likely reflects the practical needs of policymakers and officers in administrative roles to understand how these approaches can be applied in practice. The studies mainly examine barriers and facilitators to implementation, with limited attention to acceptability, feasibility and suitability. However, significant gaps are evident for certain tools (Twitter X, search and rescue operations). Training is frequently identified as essential for effective
THE FOCUS REGARDING ECONOMIC COSTS The review revealed a striking lack of economic evidence. Only one study relating to a single approach (safeguarding measures at the point of location or return) provided any explicit cost estimates, based on police officers’ salaries for conducting Return Home Interviews. The absence of cost data means that decisions to adopt or scale these approaches are often made without a clear understanding of their financial impact on forces, at a time of significant budgetary pressure.
Future research should involve closer collaboration between researchers and police personnel responsible for budgets and resource allocation to produce robust economic analyses. This work should consider who bears these costs, the scale of direct and indirect costs, and who benefits. This would have important implications for determining how these initiatives are funded.
THE EVIDENCE POINTS TO A NEED FOR A SHIFT IN RESEARCH PRIORITIES.
Overall, research of the past 20 years has been largely exploratory, focusing on descriptive findings and implementation issues, with little sustained evaluation of any single practice, policy, and tool developed nationally or internationally. While the findings of this review provide a useful starting point for both policing and research communities, future studies should prioritise two key areas: (i) measuring the impact of specific approaches and (ii) examining how they work, under what conditions, and at what costs.
A structured synthesis of the relevant findings for each of the seven identified approaches, assessed across the EMMIE dimensions, is now publicly available in The Police Journal: Theory, Practice and Principles and can be accessed here:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.117
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