I disagree, I believe she only reached the coverage she did because of the sheer determination of her friends. Women, and young girls disappear frequently, and never reach this level of exposure. Leah Croucher for example disappeared off the streets in broad daylight on her way to work, yet many have never heard her name.
1. I agree with the above. I believe her friends and their wider circle (including some blue ticks on Twitter) were instrumental in forcing fast attention. I was the victim of a street robbery earlier this year - in a lit city centre with the assailant's escape route lined by CCTV and my phone trackable for over two hours afterwards. Despite the ease with which the suspects could have been apprehended, infuriatingly the police did not follow up and I learned a lot about their triage system (graded 1 to 5) in the subsequent days. Essentially all police efforts are currently on covid related breaches and immediate threats to life - anything else is sidelined or closed. They tried to close my case but I kicked up an enormous fuss and gave them a dossier of information. They are now following up. My conclusion: anything which they can sideline at the moment they will. Sarah's contacts ensured police attention was relatively prompt and focused, but there were still possible failings in their response in light of watchdog referral. Without Sarah's friends pushing, the case may not have gained attention and been looked at so quickly. Once it became apparent a police officer may have been involved, media and public attention were further engaged.
2. Police failure to follow up on the alleged IE offence is related to the same capacity issues in my view and not officers trying to protect one of their own. I believe it was given a low response grade and then repeatedly considered less important than other incidents coming in. This conduct is being investigated.
(Look up Incident Response Policy if interested.)
3. Further, the alleged IE offence is central to the whole narrative in my view. It's indicative of impulse control spiralling for days and points to any collision of the accused with Sarah being random. Their worlds do not seem to overlap and I believe she simply had the very worst luck. It could have been anyone - possibly others were considered that evening or previous days and were near misses without realising. The location of the alleged kidnapping could have been chosen because it was thought to be a CCTV blind spot, or it could have been entirely opportunistic without much thought.
4. I do not think Sarah got into a car willingly. Caught off guard she could have been bundled into the front seat in seconds. No big struggle needed. Almost certainly no gun. Based on my experience with the robbery above, it takes a few seconds to realise what's happening and that's all it takes. I thought "oh my god, that thing which happens to other people is right now happening to me" and it was surreal. The accused could easily have been leaning into the car to cuff or otherwise restrain her at the point of the second bus passing and recording the scene.
5. Given the likelihood of sexual motivation (consistent with cases like this and also the alleged IE/ seeming compulsive Exhibitionistic Disorder), I would expect the digital footprint of the accused's pornographic interests to be revealing.