A child missing. It’s every parent’s nightmare. Very often things turn out fine. But people often do their own searching and that is not the way to track down a child who has been gone for a long time. What you should do if your child is missing is to call 112.
Valuable time is lost
When their child suddenly disappears, parents often search for themselves. They involve family and friends who comb the neighborhood or see where the child was last. Quite logical you would think, but there are professionals who can actually do that much better. And during the time when loved ones sometimes run around like headless chickens, unnecessary and, above all, valuable time is lost.
Call the emergency number and not 0900-8844
What people often don’t know is that if a child goes missing, they should call 112 immediately. Parents often don’t do that or don’t even think about it. If they do call the police, they often do so to the general number 0900-8844 and that is not the right address to report a missing person. By calling 112, immediate action is taken by the police, but this does not happen on 0900-8844. Parents also often go to the police station to report that their child is gone. That is also not a good idea and causes a lot of time to be lost on unnecessary explanations and little action. However, employees of the service number 0900-8844 must transfer parents to employees of the emergency number. But this also wastes valuable time, because the parents then have to tell the same story twice, while they could have immediately indicated what was going on the first time.
Report is not forwarded to the emergency number
If the employee of the 0900-8844 number also thinks that things may not go smoothly or has doubts about the loss, there is also a chance that the call will not be transferred to 112. Then the problem becomes even greater, because then too little done with the disappearance.
Missing children per year
Although there are no exact figures, it is estimated that between 13,000 and 20,000 children go missing each year. All those parents do not have to immediately call the emergency number if there is a good chance that the child will be found quickly or, for example, is playing with a friend. But if there is a suspicion that the child has not just gone into the neighborhood or is probably somewhere, then 911 should be called immediately. Searching for hours yourself offers no relief, it is better to immediately call the police. Even if parents don’t know where to start, it is better to seek help from a strong arm.
Police action in the event of a missing person
In general, parents are very satisfied with the police’s actions when a child goes missing. Appropriate and decisive action is taken and in most cases an extensive search is initiated very quickly. The police have a uniform working method for missing persons cases that is already used in most areas.
Missing Jennefer from Rotterdam
The National Ombudsman Alex Brenninkmeijer has made a number of recommendations when it comes to calling 112 when children go missing. He did this at the request of the mother of 10-year-old Jennefer from Rotterdam. She was also missing and was later found dead in the home of a suspect, who turned out to be her sister’s ex-partner. If the police had been called earlier, the girl might have been saved.