The large number of people reported missing each year places a massive workload on the police. A computer system piloted by officers in the West Midlands is now helping police forces across the country investigate such cases more quickly.

More than 200,000 people are reported missing in the UK each year, according to Home Office estimates.

The vast majority return safe and sound having gone missing of their own accord - but thousands do not.

Police forces dealing with large numbers of missing persons reports have to respond quickly to those cases where the welfare of the individual is of major concern. This presents officers with the complex problem of how best to manage time and resources.

One solution has been pioneered by West Midlands Police which receives more than 11,000 reports of missing people each year. The force has computerised its entire missing persons recording and investigation processes using the COMPACT (Community Policing Activities and Case Tracking) software system.

The system is designed to speed up the process of investigating and recording missing persons cases. Thanks to COMPACT officers can 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 in line with ACPO (Association of Chief Police Officers) guidelines and COMPACT builds up case histories of people who go missing frequently, providing officers with valuable information that is continually updated.

A 'briefing sheet' summary, containing details and photographs of missing persons, is displayed when users log onto the system. These can be easily printed for officers to take on patrol with them as a ready reference.

Computerising the recording and investigation of missing persons cases has resulted in considerable savings in resources, according to Detective Superintendent Derek Forest of West Midlands Police.

"COMPACT has enabled us to streamline our entire missing persons process and has helped West Midlands Police make great savings in manpower and resources,” he said.

"Persistent runaways from local authority homes had been a major problem for us. Because the COMPACT system operates in real time our officers can see how many times they have gone missing before, set a risk assessment and even suggest places to look for them based on previous enquiries. Having accurate information, that can be quickly accessed, has helped us achieve a huge reduction in this type of missing persons case.”

West Midlands Police completed a review of its policy and procedures relating to the management of missing and found persons enquiries in early 2002, prior to the publication of ACPO guidelines designed to standardise the approach to such investigations. This has been supported by the introduction of the COMPACT system, which was originally called IMPACT.

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

COMPACT allows officers to continually reassess risk levels associated with a missing person, for example when new information comes to light.

It also manages all the information created by the missing persons investigation process and distributes relevant information throughout the investigating force at the touch of a button.

Senior officers in the West Midlands can monitor progress and results using COMPACT which runs across 21 command units on an intranet system. This means that for the first time, force headquarters in Birmingham can get an accurate picture of the missing persons situation across the whole force area at any time.

COMPACT also includes special security features that 'lock' particularly sensitive cases, such as individuals fleeing forced marriages who don't want to be found. Access to such information is password protected to ensure anonymity of the person concerned.

COMPACT has now been adopted by ten police forces, including the Leicestershire Constabulary, West Mercia Constabulary and Nottinghamshire Police.

Thousands of operational officers nationwide have now been trained to use COMPACT, one of a range of computer systems developed by Bristol-based WPC Software which are now used by over 75% of the UK's police forces.