Police in West Mercia have launched a state-of-the-art IT system to make it easier to track down missing people.

The IMPACT (Intelligent Missing Persons and Case Tracking) system, which has been developed by WPC Software, is designed to speed up the process of investigating and recording missing persons cases.

West Mercia Constabulary receives about 5,000 reports of missing people each year. Most of these return home or are traced within a short period of time; but some do become long-term missing, causing great stress for their friends and family. Thanks to IMPACT police officers can now access and share information about a missing person at the click of a button and are able to carry out a risk assessment on everyone who disappears.

Each individual is ranked as high, medium or low risk and the person who reports them missing is told how much priority the police are giving the report. IMPACT also builds up case histories of people who go missing frequently, providing officers with valuable information instantaneously.

Details of missing person cases are often filed on paper which is more time-consuming and can delay potentially important door-to-door inquiries.

Detective Superintendent Ray Groves, of West Mercia Constabulary, said: "It is important for the police to respond positively and to take appropriate action when people are reported missing. We believe the acquisition of the IMPACT system is an important advance in enabling us to record and investigate such reports effectively."

Half a dozen police forces across the country are currently using IMPACT and West Mercia Constabulary is the latest to install it. About 2,000 officers have already been trained to use IMPACT, just one of a range of innovative computer systems developed by WPC Software which are now used by two thirds of the UK 's police forces.

Managing director Alan Walker said: " More than 250,000 people a year are reported missing in England alone. This places a massive workload on police investigating such cases. IMPACT reduces the amount of time officers spend tracing missing people and, hopefully, the time it takes to reunite them with their family and friends."