Bristol’s missing people

Almost 3,000 people have been reported missing in Bristol in the last year alone, but the rising numbers cannot conceal the lives behind them: the suicidal teen, the child at risk of sexual exploitation, the elderly person with dementia.

In the dead of night, the city’s police aren’t just the frontline, they are all too often the only ones who can help.

Recent high profile cases have thrust the issue into the media spotlight, with the heartache and helplessness of families played out in front of the nation, as some were left facing tragedy and many may never get the answers they seek.

The disappearance of Derek Serpell-Morris, better known as DJ Derek, made national headlines

The family of DJ Derek made desperate appeals for help to find him

But for the police response teams who hold these lives in their hands, it is part of their daily job to assess the risk to a missing person and take the right course of action to find them before the worst happens. And the pressure on the force is increasing.

When a call comes in, every second counts in the race to find someone who is missing, as the chances of finding them safe and well sink with each passing hour.

“It’s difficult, because a lot of people do have very complex mental health needs,” says Inspector James Wasiak. “A lot of these tend to be people we repeatedly look for and includes people who go missing from hospital.”

Of the eight people reported missing on average in Bristol each day, a high proportion will be vulnerable and suffering with mental health issues, as police are increasingly being used as the service of first resort, expected to fill gaps left by under-funded public health services.

Inspector James Wasiak says a high proportion of the missing persons cases they deal with involve mental health issues

It is a Friday night shift at Broadbury Road Police Station in Knowle West and, as the shift inspector, it is part of Wasiak’s role to assess the information that comes in from call handlers about missing people and determine whether the risk grading is appropriate. Tonight is light, with three cases so far.

Wasiak is on the phone to an officer currently guarding a suicidal woman who is being kept in hospital and threatening to leave and kill herself as soon as she is released.

The woman had taken an overdose and was handcuffed and taken to Southmead Hospital after paramedics had deemed her in need of treatment, but not in the right state of mind to make this decision herself. Which is where the police were called in to help.

Two police officers have been by her side for almost five hours, but if they were to let her go, it is highly likely that she will immediately become a high risk missing person and the resources needed to keep her safe escalate, making it more cost effective for them to sit tight.

Wasiak has to make this sort of calculated decision about the right course of action when lives are at stake on a daily basis and he admits it is difficult as the force has to work to make up for shortfalls in mental health services.

He adds that a street triage team introduced in Bristol last year now plays a vital role in supporting and assessing people with mental health needs.

The conversation is interrupted with the news that two children have been reported missing in south Bristol. It is 9.42pm, darkness has fallen and it is immediately classified high risk.

A high risk case could be a vulnerable child or elderly person, someone who is suicidal, or under the influence of drugs or alcohol and where there is concern of serious harm or threat to their life.

“The child was meant to be home by 6.30pm and was reported missing a few hours later,” says Wasiak.

PC Rowan Webber and PC John Howlett are all-too-often called on to investigate cases of people who go missing more than once

PCs Rowan Webber and John Howlett are immediately dispatched to the address of the child whose mother reported the pair missing to begin investigating.

In this instance, both children are found safe and well within a matter of hours, but the job doesn’t end there for the police officers.

Arriving at the family’s address, they find distress has turned to anger for the mum, who is in despair at how to manage her son, but help is not easily at hand.

It is not the first time he has disappeared and social services have been involved, but now, late at night, it is just the police there to offer a mediation service and do their best to prevent the child from going missing again.

“The sad reality is that a lot of our missing people are children and so we will have data on them and we know where they might have gone and who they might have been with,” says Webber.

When a missing person call comes in, it is the communications control room supervisor who makes the initial assessment as to whether it should be graded a high, medium or low risk case and, even as the call is taking place, information is being passed on to the force down on the ground.

Wasiak explains: “The missing people we look at fall into broad categories: from under-18s in the care of social services – the particular concern around them is also grooming and sexual exploitation – through to people who have left home, who do not see themselves as victims.

“We are guided by a national process for decision making. In essence, it’s information and intelligence.

“There will be lots of unknowns, but we look at what we do know, past history, contacts, known addresses, then I would look at assessing the risks such as suicide or self-harm, alcohol, drugs, grooming, third party involvement, abduction, mental health.

“The biggest thing we do is check addresses for family members and friends. We search premises, but also interview people to build up a picture of the person who is missing.”

In February of this year, Wasiak’s team got a call to report an elderly man with dementia had gone missing. He regularly goes to his local pub where he is well known, but on this occasion he failed to return home.

As darkness fell in the middle of winter, concern for the missing man’s welfare grew and police officers and dogs combed the city streets and gardens, with little clue as to where he might have gone. The man was eventually located safe and well at 6am by an officer on his way into work.

Call handler Lisa Shahin says she doesn’t lost sight of the human lives behind the phone calls

The average cost of a medium risk missing person investigation is £2,500, but despite dealing with at least one case a day, call handler Lisa Shahin says she never loses sight of the human lives at stake.

“As a mother, I get upset when young people go missing – I wonder what their situation is at home. Likewise, I worry about elderly people,” she says. “I treat everyone as part of my family and empathise as to how they might be feeling.”

While the majority of cases are resolved quickly, there are some people who have been missing long-term and police continually go back and review these and see if any new intelligence has come to light.

“The numbers of missing people reported have increased again recently,” says detective superintendent Richard Kelvey.

“This is partly because the accuracy of our data is better and partly because our response to reports is better.

“But, there is a knock-on effect to dealing with it better and that is a lot of police time.”

The heartache of not knowing:

“Initially it was the worry of not knowing,” recounts the dad of a man who was missing for six years.

“He told us he was going to London for the weekend to see a friend; we now know that that never happened.

“And then, when he didn’t return, it was question after question to his whereabouts, why did he go – we just didn’t know which way to turn.”

Missing People is a national charity that provides practical advice and free, confidential support for the families of missing people.

“When somebody goes missing, it can be an incredibly traumatic and emotional experience for the person who has left and for those left behind,” says the charity’s Karen Robinson.

“We know that it can be difficult to find someone to talk to who understands the unique situation that they find themselves in.”

The charity says that more than a third of all people who go missing do so on more than one occasion and almost all continue to face problems and serious risks when they return.

While in the UK, it is currently a statutory requirement for children to receive an independent return home interview after every occasion they return from being missing, there is no equivalent statutory requirement for adults, leaving them vulnerable to significant ongoing harm that is not addressed by any agency.

For details of help, advice and support available, visit: www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/advice/missing-people/.

Contact Missing People: Call or text 116 000 or email 116000@missingpeople.org.uk. The 116 000 helpline is kept open 24/7, thanks to funds raised by players of People’s Postcode Lottery.

To report a missing person, call police on 101 or 999 in the event of an emergency.

Follow a real as-live police investigation into a missing person in Bristol