Unfortunately, in Russia there are a lot of cases related to the unknown disappearance of people. Every day the police receive reports that a person has gone missing. However, not all citizens are aware of what needs to be done first if they suddenly discover a long-term absence without warning of a loved one.
In this article we will look in more detail at cases involving disappearances of people: where to go, what to do and other main points of such situations.
When should you contact the police?
Attention
It should be noted right away that the information that reports of a missing person are accepted after 3 days from the moment of disappearance is a myth .
Police officers are required to accept such statements immediately. In cases where the police refuse to accept an application, citizens can call “102” and tell the operator about the refusal of the officer on duty. Such complaints are recorded, monitored and checked, after which the guilty employees are punished.
Sequencing
a signal to begin action: if a loved one does not return home on time, there is no contact with him and none of his acquaintances, friends and relatives can tell where he is. In this case, you can’t hesitate, you need to:
- Collect information, which takes from 15 minutes to 1 hour . It is necessary to remember the details of the missing person’s clothing, what he had with him, special features: height, hair, eyes, moles, scars, tattoos and others. It is recommended to write down this information, as in emergency situations people tend to forget. It is also necessary to prepare several recent photographs of the disappeared person;
- Immediately after collecting information, contact the police, this will take from 1 to 2 hours . As mentioned above, the police officer is obliged to accept the application immediately. If it is not possible to contact the police in person, you need to call them. Each telephone call is recorded;
- It is necessary to call everyone who may have information about the missing person. You also need to request details of recent calls from the missing person’s phone and try to reconstruct previous events. This will take from 2 to 3 hours .
First actions of the police:
- Accept the application (regardless of the place of disappearance, how long ago the disappearance was, and regardless of who the applicant is: a relative, friend or acquaintance);
- Register the application , after which the applicant has the right to find out his registration number and the full name of the accepting employee;
- Organize and conduct operational search activities , including inspection of the place of disappearance, interviewing citizens who may have information about what happened, obtaining data from technical communication channels, studying documents and belongings of the disappeared person.
Do I need to wait?
The famous saying “Delay is like death” should be taken literally in the case of searching for a missing person. You need to submit an application to search for a person immediately, because in many cases the count is not even days, but hours or minutes.
Why is there an opinion that you need to wait 3 hours, a day or even 3 days? One of the reasons is the suggestion to delay the search, which is often heard from the police. In many cases, the delay can be understood - often the servants of the law have to spend time searching for spree husbands and unlucky wives, looking for those hiding from debts or alimony. The lives of these people are not in danger; moreover, they often show up on their own after being away for many days.
The second reason is that it takes approximately 3 hours to collect valuable information about the missing person, record it and arrive at the station. But if everything is done faster, then no one forbids filing a search earlier.
Everyone has the right to independently decide whether to immediately contact the police or wait. And if you decide to ask for help, then you can submit an application to search for a person to the police at any time of the day, on a weekend or holiday. In this case, the job description obliges the duty officer:
- accept paper;
- register it;
- report the missing person via internal communication channels to begin search activities.
Drawing up an application
There are two ways to report a missing person :
- You can make a statement at the police station, taking dictation to write down the necessary information. At the same time, the applicant should not write in the application something with which he does not agree;
- You can make a statement to the police at home, print it on an A4 sheet or send it via the Internet.
If you are preparing an application yourself, our recommendations will be useful to you. The application must contain the following information:
- The name of the police department or the full name and position of the person in whose name the application is written;
- Full name and address of the applicant, you can also leave a telephone number;
- The facts and circumstances of the case, stated briefly and clearly;
- If there are documents that in any way prove the fact of disappearance (for example, a notebook or diary), it is necessary to submit photocopies of these documents along with the application and indicate their list in the “Appendices” column;
- Date and signature.
Attention
If the applicant believes that an attempt was made on the life of the missing person, this should be indicated in the application. Also, if the applicant has possible suspects and witnesses, their information must also be indicated.
Sample
Here you can see a sample statement to the police, which will help you correctly draw up a statement yourself.
Pay attention to the recommendations for drawing up a statement and then the police will have nothing to complain about.
Download
Missing person report (.doc)
Who can initiate the search?
Not only the relatives of the missing person, but also anyone who is interested in finding him has the right to start a search. These could be friends, neighbors or colleagues who noticed the long absence of an acquaintance.
First, of course, outsiders need to talk to relatives, if possible. So that it doesn’t turn out that the neighbor left to work, and at home he was put on the wanted list at the request of the overly vigilant Mary Vanna.
It is important that in many cases it is the appeal of strangers that helps save a person. Such situations arise in dysfunctional families, when alcoholic parents do not care about their own children, or when the missing person lived alone and did not maintain contact with relatives.
Important! The duty officer cannot refuse to accept an appeal because it is not being submitted by a relative.
How to submit an application?
After completing the application, it should be taken to the nearest police station and handed over to the officer on duty for registration.
Sometimes the officers on duty refuse to accept applications, citing the fact that three days have not passed since the disappearance. In this case, you need to remind the duty officer that he is obliged to accept any such application.
Also, some police officers resort to tricks, convincing citizens that applications are accepted strictly at a certain time. However, the police officer is obliged to accept such statements around the clock (according to Article 9 of the job description “On the procedure for receiving, registering and resolving reports of crimes and other information about offenses in the internal affairs bodies of the Russian Federation”).
Advice
If no arguments help the applicant to get the duty officer to register the application, he should call “102” and provide the details of the duty officer who refuses to do the work.
Adviсe
Let's summarize all of the above and reflect them in the form of tips and recommendations for searching for missing people:
- When a report is made, demand that the police act. A missing person is serious, every minute matters.
- Contact the cellular company and request details of the calls of the person you are looking for. This will help in his search.
- Don’t hesitate to contact volunteers. Thanks to them, about 25% of missing people are found.
- Be as active as possible for 48 hours. During this period of time, missing persons are most often found. Do your best.
- Do not distract police officers and volunteers from their work. If they are busy searching for a missing person, your constant calls with questions will only distract them. If details become available, you will be contacted.
When a complaint is made, demand that the police act
What to do if a child goes missing?
The algorithm of actions in case of the disappearance of a child is somewhat different than in the case of the disappearance of an adult:
- As soon as you suspect something is wrong, call first the child’s friends, and then close relatives;
- Next, it's worth checking social media;
- If the above does not help in locating the child, you need to call the police. Along with this, you should contact public organizations involved in searching for missing people;
- Then you need to call medical institutions to clarify the information;
- Be sure to leave someone close to you at home in case the child returns;
- You can ask friends for help and search areas close to home and places familiar to the child;
- Every 12 hours it is necessary to check the entrance and surroundings of the house. Sometimes children are afraid to return home because of the possible consequences;
- It is worth keeping in mind that police officers need to be told about possible problems in the family that could cause the child to run away. In case of the same problems, one of the relatives could take the child.
Important Preparation
Before learning how to apply to search for a person, you need to calmly prepare the necessary information that will help you quickly find the wanted person. There may be excitement at the station, making it difficult to remember important details, so it is better to write everything down at home. In addition, you can always consult with your family, who will suggest something essential.
Details that speed up and facilitate searches include:
- physical signs - scars, moles, deformities, birthmarks, etc.;
- description of appearance - height, body type, eye and hair color;
- age and gender;
- other individual characteristics that distinguish the wanted person from others (lameness, absence of limbs, etc.).
The following information will also be valuable to investigators:
- clothing – equipment, color, material, bright details;
- personal belongings that a person may have with him - often it is from them that it is possible to trace the trace of the lost person;
- contacts - friends, acquaintances, colleagues with whom the missing person was in contact.
When listing people with whom a person could communicate, you need to remember not only regular contacts and good friends, but also new acquaintances, as well as those who were aggressive towards the missing person.
Important! When contacting the police, you must have your own documents, as well as the papers of the disappeared person (passport, pension card, medical card, birth certificate, etc.).
Terms of consideration
According to the Instructions on the procedure for considering applications, reports of crimes and other information about incidents related to the disappearance of persons, a decision on the received application is made immediately.
The decision taken when considering a missing person complaint:
According to the Instructions, measures are immediately taken to verify the circumstances of the person’s disappearance, to detect possible traces of a crime, as well as other circumstances that may be important in establishing the causes of the disappearance.
Where else to go for help
Where else can you turn if a person goes missing:
- to representatives of volunteer search teams;
- to large city public pages on social networks;
- to online communities and groups to search for people.
The list of official volunteer organizations for searching for people includes:
- Lisa Alert (federal search team);
- Russian Volunteer Union (Crimea);
- “Vasilisa”, “Nadezhda”, “Trace” (Tatarstan);
- youth (Krasnodar region);
- “Search for missing children - Krasnoyarsk”;
- PSO "Volunteer" (Nizhny Novgorod region);
- PSO "White Owl - Tyumen" and others.
Volunteer work to find a person.
It is not recommended to resort to the help of fortune tellers and psychics. Their advice in most cases sends the group on the wrong track and unmotivatedly narrows the scope of their search.
