UK UK - NCA's 13,000 Missing Person Cold Casefiles could be opened up to Volunteer Detectives

[Telltale]

I saw this and thought it would be of interest to folks on this forum.

Select UK police forces have been running a pilot scheme: Opening up their missing person cold casefiles to a charity of civilian volunteer detectives - who dig in to generate new leads for them.

The pilot has gone well. The volenteers can dedicate far more time, personal and specialist support than most police forces have to spare on these cold cases and have had a decent amount of success. They are looking to expand it to the National Crime Agencies missing person archives, (which has 13000 unresolved cases), and presumably other UK forces as well.

The charity that was involved in the pilot scheme is Locate International which is run by a retired detective. It appears to be a very professional outfit. It can be contacted by family members of missing people, but works directly with the UK police (currently select police forces only,) and hands information found only to them.

It vets it's volunteers and they are selective, but applicants don't have to have a formal investigative or academic background, are all over the world and they also provide training.

Article from the Guardian below

Thousands of UK missing persons cases may be reinvestigated

Volunteer detectives could look again at all 13,000 cold cases on National Crime Agency’s missing persons unit

Missing persons investigations going back decades and cases of unidentified remains across the UK will be freshly investigated under a new pilot scheme.

The programme, by the charity Locate International, will be limited initially to a small number of police forces. But the National Police Chiefs Council has said it could be extended nationwide, bringing in volunteer detectives from around the world to reinvestigate all 13,000 cold cases on the National Crime Agency’s UK missing persons unit.

“There is currently no dedicated, specialist service for families to turn to when a case remains unsolved or is not being progressed satisfactorily,” said Dave Grimstead, the retired police officer who founded the charity.

“Research shows that those left behind, without help or hope, will often engage on lifelong and traumatic searches.”

Locate International has been running a small, below-the-radar pilot scheme since 2019 with police forces in Devon and Cornwall, Norfolk and Hampshire. They are now looking to extend the number of police forces they work with.

Last year, the charity’s team of volunteers investigated 128 cases of missing persons and unidentified remains, identifying 26 people – one in five.

The National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) is considering a national pilot scheme across all police forces. The programme would include live and cold cases, with forces sharing their internal files with Locate International’s vetted volunteers...
Read on

Second article

Locate International

Worth checking out I think. I imagine there are a lot of people on this forum who would be exactly the kinds of volenteers that they are looking for.

 

[Jenesaisquoi]

This is great news.

 

[lindamichelle1]

Amazing

 

[MelmothTheLost]

I'm a volunteer with Locate and a member of a Community Investigation Team (COMMIT) that has been assigned a number of unidentified cases to work.

 

[Telltale]

I'm a volunteer with Locate and a member of a Community Investigation Team (COMMIT) that has been assigned a number of unidentified cases to work.

That's interesting. How have you found their work and training?

 

[devertere]

Wow, that is amazing. Thanks a lot for letting us know.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

That's interesting. How have you found their work and training?

The training is pretty thorough. Every volunteer undergoes an initial 20+ hour course which covers investigative techniques using a series of fictional case studies, including evaluation of available information such as newspaper reports and witness statements; gap analysis; and identifying lines of enquiry and actions arising from them. At the end of the course the members investigate a more substantial semi-fictional case, compile and submit reports based on the outcomes of those investigations and identify further lines of enquiry etc. On completion of the course, volunteers are assigned either to an investigation team which has or is given a number of cases to investigate, or to one of the more specialised teams such as media, OSINT, IT, fundraising etc.

There is a second compulsory course which focuses on missing persons, particularly who goes missing and why, and media responses to missing persons.

There are a couple of other short compulsory courses on data protection and security and on how to use the reporting systems used by the investigation teams.

Beyond that, there is a whole raft of voluntary training courses covering areas such as OSINT stills (40+ hours), genealogy skills at both beginner and advanced levels, genetics for forensic and IGG purposes etc etc.