ONE person went missing more than 170 times in just one year, Police Scotland have revealed.
The force carries out around 22,000 probes into disappearances annually, but half of these cases are for people who vanish more than once.
And between April 2016 and March this year, one individual sparked more than 170 operations.
The news came as Assistant Chief Constable Andy Cowie addressed the International Conference on Missing Children and Adults in Dundee yesterday.
Cowie said: “While missing person investigations are police-led they are not police-only.
“This international conference is an opportunity to meet with partners nationally and internationally to discuss approaches to dealing missing people and to share best practice.
“We are all working hard to prevent people going missing, looking at best practice nationally and internationally, to support us in developing how we prevent people going missing.
“We recognise we simply cannot do that alone. We need our partners and communities to work with us to protect those most at risk of going missing and prevent missing person episodes wherever possible.”
Of those who went missing last year, almost 60 per cent were male and more than half were aged 13-16.
While 75 per cent return home within 24 hours, one per cent are never found.
Speaking at the Abertay University event, Cowie said: “People go missing for a broad range of reasons and usually voluntarily. But we also know that the majority of people who go missing are vulnerable.
“What our data tells us is that we need to do more, working with partners, to understand why people go missing, to prevent people going missing and to protect the most vulnerable people in our communities.”
Dr Penny Woolnough of Abertay University said: “Working in partnership with Police Scotland and the Scottish Institute for Policing Research, this is the first time this important event has been hosted in Scotland.
“It is the only international conference which sees multi-disciplinary academics, practitioners and policy makers come together to explore and discuss the full range of issues associated with the challenges faced by those who are missed, those who are charged with responding to missing and those who are affected by missing in its broadest sense.
“It reiterates Scotland’s commitment to leading development of policy and practice in this area.
“We will be welcoming 150 delegates from across the world including Australia, China, Canada and many European countries as we come together to share international best practice, but also to challenge our ways of working and to identify gaps in knowledge and opportunities for future collaborative work.”
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