Police deal with hundreds of missing persons cases annually

Figures revealed following FoI request

The police have dealt with more than 470 missing person cases in the last 12 months.

Figures have been released following a Freedom of Information request.

The figure of 476 for September 2017 until August this year is higher than the previous 12 months (421), but much lower than 2015-16 (742).

The average time a person is missing varies, though, depending on which method is used.

The mean average over the three-year period is five hours and fifty-five minutes, but the police say this is skewed by a small number of lengthier disappearances.

Using the two other common methods for calculating an average (mode and median) makes the figure a lot lower, though (two hours and two hours fifteen minutes, respectively).

A request for information on how police liaise with telecoms providers whilst dealing with such cases was refused for operational reasons.