International Missing Persons Day

Date published: 25 May 2010

Greater Manchester Police is supporting International Missing Children’s Day on 25 May.

More than 100,000 children go missing every year in the UK. Many are quickly reunited with their family but in some cases the situation is much more serious.

In recognition of the seriousness of problem, the National Policing Improvement Agency will launch a new scheme – Child Rescue Alert (CRA) – to combat child abduction as part of the events on 25 May.

CRA is a powerful alliance between the police, the press and the public that seeks to locate an abducted child and bring them to safety. Alerts will be activated to local media by a UK police force when certain criteria have been met, sometimes within hours of a reported disappearance. In certain circumstances, alerts will be issued directly to the national media where it is felt that a child may have been moved across a county or national border. The public are asked to report sightings or relevant information to a single, national freephone number 0300 2000 333.

Assistant Chief Constable Terry Sweeney from GMP said: “The Child Rescue Alert system would only be activated in very extreme circumstances but could prove to be the difference between life and death for the missing child.

"No matter how many police resources we put into finding a child, having thousands of members of the public searching for them is an invaluable resource.

"The safety of the child is always our priority and we realise, like us, that the public are keen to do everything possible to help a child in danger.

"Activating a Child Rescue Alert allows us to get a message out to the public quickly and maximise our chances of finding the child and returning them to safety as quickly as possible.

"The media have already been extremely co-operative with this proposal and, while we would hope we would never have a situation that would make it necessary to activate an alert, it is reassuring to know that we have this resource available to us if we need it."

Chief Constable Peter Neyroud, from the NPIA, said: “As a father, I cannot imagine the trauma and sheer devastation a parent must feel when they have to make that call to the police to report their child missing.

“But, in those cases where an operational decision is made to activate a Child Rescue Alert, it will be of some considerable comfort to know that the media and the public are supporting them by being vigilant and reporting vital pieces of intelligence to the police. There can be few other power partnerships that literally help to save a child from serious harm or even death.”

For more information about Child Rescue Alert and for full details about events happening in the UK as part of International Missing Children’s Day, log onto www.childrescuealert.com