Police searches have been launched for more than 12,000 people reported missing in Norfolk in the past three years, it has been revealed.
Operations ranged from searches lasting a few hours to high-profile efforts to trace missing people over months that involved extensive inquiries by officers, specialist police dog and drone units and Norfolk Lowland Search and Rescue.
Children and young people aged under 18 made up 7,823 of the 12,399 missing person reports to Norfolk police between the start of 2020 and the end of 2022.
Amongst adults reported as having gone missing 2,951 were men and 1,625 women, the response to a freedom of information request show.
Andy Coller, head of safeguarding at Norfolk Constabulary, said tracing people was an important policing function and officers “will always do whatever we can to find people and ensure they are safe”.
“Clearly in some cases people will be at risk of serious harm or death and those cases will be prioritised as high risk,” he added.
“A missing person inquiry may be fairly short and simple to conclude or may take many hours or, in extreme cases, stretch into days and weeks.”
The resources put into searches was illustrated by the huge missing person operation by Lancashire Police following the disappearance of Nicola Bulley whose body was discovered in the River Wye after three weeks of searching.
A similar four-month search was undertaken in Norfolk to locate missing James Whitman, from Gressenhall, before his body was found last October.
The operation involved officers, police dogs, drones and divers at the University of East Anglia lake.
Norfolk police have previously said that the struggles of the region's mental health services have piled "additional pressure" on officers to deal with people in crises, including those who have gone missing.
Andy Symonds, chair of the Norfolk Police Federation, said a large amount of police resources went into searching for missing people, those absent from care settings and children who had not returned home.
“Of course we should be called if a crime is being committed or the person in crisis may cause harm to others or themselves,” he said.
“But when we do it means we are left holding the baby until other services become available to take on the responsibility.”
Norfolk police use the Herbert Protocol Missing Person Incident multi-agency system designed to make sure that when someone goes missing they can get access to important information as soon as possible.
Disappearances are categorised into low, medium and high risk according to whether there is a real and immediate danger to the safety of either the missing person or the wider public.
Factors used to make the decision include age, whether disappearance is out of character, if they need essential medication and if they have known financial, employment or relationship problems.
Mr Coller said: “People are reported as missing to the police in a whole range of circumstances and we will complete a risk assessment that fully takes account of all of those circumstances.
“Our response will be based upon that risk assessment.”
Among those still missing in Norfolk include Pawel Martyniak, 21, from Gorleston, who has not been seen since November 2021.
The one year anniversary of his disappearance saw a fresh appeal for information by police who as part of the extensive search have sent officers to London to chase up possible sightings.
Others include Sophie Smith who disappeared from her home in Avondale Road in Gorleston on Boxing Day 2017, Murareem Kotarja last seen in Great Yarmouth in December 2019, and Bledar Ismailaj last seen in King’s Lynn in July 2018.
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