Developing Police Search Strategies for Elderly Missing Persons in Croatia
Purpose:
This paper examines the distribution of elderly missing persons in the city of Zagreb per variables (age, sex of the missing person, social and marital status, employment, place and duration of disappearance, method of finding the missing person, its outcome, reasons for disappearance, etc.) needed for the design of the plan of the search for the missing person.
Design/Methods/Approach:
The paper uses data collected through a questionnaire with 417 variables and processed with certain basic statistical methods. The collected data are examined on a sample of 170 elderly missing persons in the city of Zagreb, and through characteristics of methods, measures and actions, together with the methods of search for elderly persons in cities, with special reference to Zagreb.
Findings:
The statistically established behavioural modes of certain groups of elderly people are analysed: persons with Alzheimer’s disease and persons with suicidal risk. The stated findings largely assist in planning and conducting the search for those persons, especially for missing person profiling and his/her possible movement since disappearance. The success of the search for the missing person presumes knowledge about the stated specifics by all searchers. It especially applies to the police in the formal, due to its sole duty and competence for the search for missing persons, as well as in the real sense where they conduct search measures and actions together with other participants adapted to real situations of disappearance of elderly persons.
Research Limitations / Implications:
The research has been limited by data available from the police bulletin of daily events, but this limitation was partially removed by a direct insight into the police files containing the case history. During the research, the legal and ethical regulations regarding personal data protection were strictly followed.
Originality/Value:
There is a number of researches on police search for the missing persons (UK, USA, Australia etc.), but few of them deal with elderly persons. This paper introduces a new offensive approach to the search for the missing person on a strategic level (missing person profiling with regard to specific variables, possible movement and routes, “wanderings”). New police procedures are suggested on a tactical level (e.g., stopping a person who disappeared in a certain area), but they include traditional police methods (car & regular patrols, police officers on bicycles, police search dogs, collecting information, conducting interviews, terrain search etc.). Introduction of the principle of partnership search for the missing person. Research results should be useful to police practice and their education.
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Keywords: missing persons, police search, elderly persons, Alzheimer's disease