How to apply to the police to search for a person?

There are many reasons why a citizen might contact the police. As a rule, police are contacted when you need to protect your rights, punish criminals, or protect yourself from a possible crime.

But sometimes it happens that you need to turn to the police for help, because their employees have powers and resources that are not available to everyone. In this article we will talk about what a statement about the search for a person to the police is, how it is written and how to find a person with its help.

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When can I serve?

First, let's look at situations in which a person can be considered missing. In fact, there is no clear time limit, and a person can be declared missing at any time - even if he simply did not show up at the appointed time. But there is one nuance here - if you want to declare someone missing, then you need to at least try to find the person - call available numbers, contact his friends, contact his place of residence, etc. That is, if you come to the police and say that you didn’t even look for the missing person, then this will not be of much use, since the police will spend a lot of time on what you could do in a very short time on your own.

Let's talk about timing. There is a popular belief that in order to contact the police, you need to wait three days from the moment a person goes missing. This is not true, and such a myth arose due to the fact that many citizens violate the very rules of filing a missing persons report with the police. In fact, there is no need to wait, and as soon as you are unable to find the missing person on your own, you can contact the police. So it doesn’t matter who is missing - a child, a healthy adult or a pensioner, you have the right to look for him immediately, and refusal to accept the application will be regarded as a gross violation.

The last thing to consider is the timing of the application itself. There is also one peculiarity here - if most applications to the police can be considered for some time and there is a deadline for their analysis, then a missing person application should be considered instantly. That is, your application must be transferred directly from the reception to an authorized employee, who will be obliged to immediately take any active action depending on the situation.

Where do people go missing in Russia?

According to police officers involved in search cases, most often they have to work with three categories of missing persons:

1. Persons who suddenly have aggravated or manifested mental illness and for this reason they leave in an unknown direction. For example, they searched for one girl for a long time, and her relatives no longer had any hope. Three years later she was found in one of the mental hospitals in Belgorod;
2. People who have lost contact with family due to an antisocial lifestyle . Simply put, homeless people or those recently released from prison;
3. Runaway children . Children run away from families after a big quarrel, because of beatings, or simply wanting to travel with a friend.

The police are the first place a relative of a suddenly missing person should come. You should not rely on your own strength in such a matter; at this moment it is important to trust professionals, whose work is most effective in the first day of searching.

How to compose

A missing person's report to the police is a document of strict form that must be written in accordance with the sample. You can download a sample statement about a missing person to the police yourself, ask for help from a lawyer or the police themselves at the department - they will help you and give you forms with samples. The application must provide the following information:

• Title. It contains the full name and title of the head of the department (in whose name the application is submitted), information about the police department itself (name and address) and the applicant’s details (full name, address, contact details);
• Information part. Contains a detailed description of the missing person (name, gender, age, description of appearance, description of clothing, special features) and all known information about the last whereabouts. You can also provide information about a possible location that you cannot verify yourself. The information part ends with a request to start searching;
• Conclusion. Includes a list of all materials attached to the application (for example, photographs), the signature of the applicant and the date the application was filed with the police.

Sample

Sample missing person report to the police.doc

Search for missing persons in databases.

Today, there is a special dossier to collect information and record all missing people. Photographs, special features and any other information that may be useful for identifying a person are contained in this database.

Also, searches for missing people immediately begin in specialized Bureaus, whose employees continuously establish the location of those people who are wanted at a specific point in time. Information is also collected here about victims of accidents, those who were arrested for one reason or another, and unidentified bodies sent to the morgue.

It is also important to remember that in some cases, missing people themselves ask not to provide any information about their whereabouts, and this requirement is quite legitimate.

How to submit

Filing a missing person report to the police is very simple - you can contact the department in person or send a representative to the police with a power of attorney in your place. However, if you do not have the opportunity to personally contact the department, and you do not have time to find an intermediary and draw up a power of attorney, then you can ask absolutely any acquaintance of the missing person to submit an application - for the police in such matters it is not particularly important what the connection is between the applicant and the missing person. So both family members and, for example, work colleagues can apply.

To submit the application itself, simply contact an authorized employee at the reception desk. You can also ask him for help in writing if your appeal is not yet ready. Then submit your application and supporting materials and wait for it to be processed. Since the application is considered immediately, it makes sense to wait at the department - the police officers may have questions for you.

After the application is submitted, its verification will begin and the police will begin searching. Their order can vary significantly depending on the circumstances and existing data: the check can begin either with calling close relatives or with the deployment of a full-fledged search operation.

Consideration of an application to the FSSP

After registering the submitted application from the claimant, the authorized bailiff must prepare the appropriate decision:

• about putting the defaulter on the wanted list (the official is given up to 3 days to make this decision);
• about refusal to satisfy the applicant’s demands (the response must be prepared within 24 hours).

If you do not agree with the decision made by the FSSP, appeal it to a higher authority. In the text of the complaint, indicate why you believe that your interests and rights were violated by the bailiff’s conclusion.

The search case must be opened within 24 hours from the date of the decision to take enforcement-search measures.

What to do if your application is not accepted

From time to time it happens that the police refuse to accept a missing person report. This is a gross violation of the law, and there are practically no reasons for not accepting the application. The only common legal reason for refusal is an incorrectly drawn up search application.

If your application is not accepted, you can do one of two things:

• Contact the prosecutor's office. Loss reports sent to the prosecutor's office are also processed in an expedited manner. So the prosecutor's office, having considered your complaint against the police, will be able to force them to start searching;
• Contact another police department. The legislation allows citizens to seek help from any police department, regardless of their place of residence and registration. So if the department at your place of residence refused to help, then it makes sense to contact the neighboring one - this will save a lot of time.

Is it possible to find a person by mobile phone?

A smartphone is a great tool for finding a person:

1. By phone number. This method is used by the police.
2. Using a special program to track a person’s location (tracker).
3. Based on indirect evidence: mobile banking and linked card, geolocation on social networks, etc.

5 subtleties of a complaint against a mobile operator

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Where else to go

In cases of missing persons, the clock is often ticking, and therefore, after contacting the police, you should not sit idly by. You have many ways to speed up your searches and significantly expand their coverage:

• Write messages on social networks. There are both special groups to help find people, as well as general groups for certain locations. If you leave a message there, random witnesses will be able to leave their notes and testimony, and concerned citizens will be able to offer help;
• Contact volunteer services for help. There are quite a lot of them; there may even be several of them in one city. Their advantage is that they have extensive experience in searches, and can also quickly attract a large number of concerned citizens to the search. Their help is especially useful in cases where the missing person needs to be looked for outside the city (for example, in searching for tourists or vacationers lost in the forest);
• Contact private agencies . Their help will be useful if a lot of time has passed since the disappearance, but neither the volunteers, nor the police, nor you yourself have found any clues. Detectives have extensive experience, are slightly more mobile than large search teams, and also use a wide variety of information gathering methods.

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.

How are search activities terminated?

To suspend or terminate the search for the defaulter, it is necessary to issue an appropriate resolution approved by the senior bailiff. The results of the event must be reflected in a special certificate.

The grounds for stopping the search are:

• determining the location of the debtor or his property;
• expiration of the deadlines specified in the resolution;
• completion of enforcement proceedings;
• obstruction of the search for the defaulter by the creditor.

The search operation is carried out within two months, but if necessary, this period is extended for an additional 60 days. For this purpose, an appropriate resolution must be passed.

Other ways to find a child

There are initiative groups and volunteer organizations involved in searching for missing people.

In all regions there are small initiative groups searching for missing people. You should definitely contact them. also volunteer organizations operating throughout Russia, for example, Lisa Alert. She is searching for missing children.

Algorithm of actions

Algorithm of action in the event of a missing child:

1. First, find out the numbers of his friends and call them, also contact relatives.
2. Open his pages on social networks, check his email.
3. Contact the nearest police department if previous recommendations have not given a positive result.
4. Collect information about the city's hospitals and call each of them.
5. One of the relatives or friends must stay at home, the missing person can return home.
6. Walk around the house and the path he supposedly took to get home.
7. If there is a problem in the family, the police need to report it. Sometimes children are afraid to go home. One of the relatives could also take the child.