• Category

  • Content Type

Advertisement

Police call Centre Finds 200 Missing Persons in Week One

April 28, 2010

The Full Story

The Police have resolved some 200 cases during the first week of operation of the Missing Persons Call Centre, according to Director of Communications at the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), Mr. Karl Angell.
Mr. Angell said that these successes resulted from the 581 cases which have been dealt with by the Centre since being launched on April 19, based on missing persons reports islandwide.
The Missing Persons Call Centre is located at the office of the Police Commissioner, and is manned by six District Constables.
Speaking in an interview with JIS News Tuesday (April 27), Mr. Angell explained that the Call Centre is an initiative of Commissioner of Police Owen Ellington, geared at identifying and dealing with the issue of missing persons.
“We were able to confirm that close to 200 of the 581 persons who were reported missing returned home. Those files are now completed and will be listed as such in our statistics,” he stated.
He explained that the six District Constables assigned to the call centre were trained specifically to work there, and that the JCF is exceptionally pleased with the output and results thus far.
“These District Constables’ duties are to call the persons who made reports, to verify whether the persons they report as missing have returned home, or to give an update on their present status,” he said.
Mr. Angell also added that the District Constables will not close any of the files, until they have been completed. In cases where contact cannot be made with family members or friends because of wrong numbers, checks will be made with the investigating officer to obtain more contact information to verify if the persons have returned home or are still missing.
He pointed out that while there are a lot of missing persons reports, families and friends usually do not inform the police when these persons return home. He said that while the call centre will be working assiduously to close these files, families of persons who have gone missing and returned home should take the initiative to inform the police.
“If you have filed a missing persons report at any of the stations in any parish, and the persons who you reported missing have returned, it should be part of your responsibility to tell the police,” he implored.
Mr. Angell said that in the first week of operation, approximately 144 calls made were either wrong numbers or went to voicemail. He added that the operators are currently working on approximately 120 cases for 2010, where persons are still missing. He also noted that the operators will be working on cases for 2009 and beyond after completing files for the year 2010.

Last Updated: August 16, 2013

Skip to content