Response to missing person’s report - Metropolitan Police Service, August 2018

In August 2018 a woman called the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) to report that her father was missing. After receiving the call, the MPS commenced a missing person’s investigation and graded the risk as ‘medium’. No officers were available initially to meet with the woman due to ongoing serious incidents. However, officers carried out some actions via telephone calls and computer checks.

Approximately 12 hours after the initial phone call, the man’s daughter provided updated information to the police with a potential location for the man’s phone. However, no officers were available at that time to meet with the family to search the location. The man was later found dead by a member of the public.

Our investigators gathered the following material in order to assist with the investigation: MPS incident logs, MPS missing person report, audio recordings of phone calls, statements of police officers, and relevant policies and guidance.

Evidence indicated that the MPS appeared to deal with the missing person’s report in a proportionate manner and assessed this risk at the right level based on the information available to them. All officers allocated to the investigation carried out a number of actions. As soon as officers were available, they were deployed to the possible location of the man’s phone as indicated by his family in order to begin a search.

We found no evidence to indicate that the actions of the MPS contributed to or caused the man’s death.

Based on the evidence available, we found no indication any police officer had behaved in a manner that would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings or had committed a criminal offence.

We concluded our investigation in December 2018 but waited until the inquest into the man’s death had concluded in summer 2019 to publish our findings.