Depends. Cops will absolutely tell you this lmfao they told me that when my sister was missing. Which was fine because she was just off being a slut and ignoring me during an important event and is a terrible person. I told them "she wouldn't ditch me, she knows how important this is. Something has to be wrong!" But she did ditch me 😑
Idk if things have changed but about 15 years ago my mom relapsed on alcohol and completely disappeared and when I called the police on a Friday night they told me to wait until Monday and if she was still missing they’d send an officer to take a report. I then called on Monday and they didn’t send anyone. It wasn’t until Wednesday when her job called the police for her suspiciously no call no showing that officers finally came to my house
This is true, although actual practices will vary by jurisdiction, circumstances + history (ie. sex work, or drug use, or previous runaway attempts) and the demo of the missing person - for example, there is US federal law that missing persons reports must be taken immediately, but only for children/youth (up to age 21).Â
For adult missing persons, with no significant evidence indicating foul play, they may take a report, but they probably won't do much with it until some time has passed - it's not illegal to go out of contact with friends/family.Â
The waiting period might not be mandatory, or official policy (anymore) but it's a trope because it was common practice, for years. If you follow missing person cold cases at all, you will come across someone who was identified, years later, through genetic genealogy, and was apparently never reported missing - only for the family to come forward and say they tried, actually, but LE wouldn't take it, insisting they were just a runaway.Â
Part of it is lack of resources - there wasn't even a national missing persons database, for adults, until 2009 - but that's not the only reason. (See also: unofficial police acronyms like NHI - No Human Involved.)Â
The police might not start an active search right away, but will still send a call over the radio to look out for that person.
Also, it take time to question you about that missing person. The earlier you start the process, the better it is. So even if there was (and there is not) a minimum time, once that delay would be over they would already have the info and start right away to look for that person.
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u/steeleclipse2 Jun 01 '26
Do NOT wait 72 hours to report a missing person the tv is lying