News (archive) – Geographies of Missing People

2016

July 2016

* Glasgow University’s Horizon Magazine features the research* Hester is working with Missing People to run the second networking event on #Returned missing in Wales during August* BBC Panorama features Hester Parr speaking about missing people and The One Show runs an item referencing the project* Hester, Olivia and Penny are revising an academic paper on geographies of missing women

February 2016

* Hester is organising an multi-agency event on ‘return of missing people’ in April in London with the Missing People Charity, watch this space for further news.

2015

November 2015

Hester is part of the working group which has informed the production of a new strategy Scottish Government led strategy for missing people in Scotland and the consultation is now live http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/08/9749.

January 2015

* We are delighted to have been shortlisted for the 2015 ESRC Celebrating Impact Awards. The 2015 Impact Prize is an exciting opportunity to celebrate the outstanding economic and social impacts achieved by ESRC-funded researchers over the last 50 years. Dr Hester Parr will travel to London to meet with the award panel in early February.

2014

‘August 2014

* The ESRC award for the project is now at an end. Dr Olivia Stevenson has moved on to a knowledge exchange post at UCL and we wish her all the best and thank her for her work on the project.

* The team are continuing to draft article for journals this month.

June 2014

* The Geographies of Missing People project has been nominated by the University of Glasgow for entry to the Times Higher Education ‘Research project of the year’ awards

* The team are involved in writing outputs from the project this month.

May 2014

* During April and May Olivia along with Penny are attending and presenting research results at several College of Policing PNSC PoISA CPD events – ‘Missing in the 21st Century’ – including Ryton, Tulliallan & Bramshill.

* The geographies of missing people team have been invited to contribute to the development of a National Missing Persons Strategy for Scotland. In May Hester, Penny and Olivia will attend the second strategy meeting of the Scottish Government working group and Hester will lead a presentation of the key findings from our research and how they impact on a Scottish strategy.

* The geographies of missing people research has been recognised for its value to policing and via Police Scotland’s National Missing Persons Coordinator – Superintendent Andy McKay – findings and recommendations from the research have been embedded in the newly design standard operation procedure (SOP) for Police Scotland officers. The SOP and further training will be rolled out over the coming year.

April 2014

* During April and May Olivia along with Penny are attending and presenting research results at several College of Policing PNSC PoISA CPD events including Ryton, Tulliallan & Bramshill.

* Outputs and impacts from Geographies of Missing research are being presented by Hester at Glasgow University’s Knowledge Exchange & Impact Conference – 22 April 2014, at the Hilton Glasgow Grosvenor Hotel. This conference will be a forum for researchers to share their experiences and gain insights Book your place at the Conference: [email protected].

* Geographies of missing people features in the Spring 2014 issue of Translational Criminology. It can be viewed and downloaded at http://cebcp.org/wp-content/TCmagazine/TC6-Spring2014

March 2014

* The new redesigned website of the charity Missing People launched and as part of their ongoing commitment to our research and its findings the geographies of missing people project outputs feature: https://www.missingpeople.org.uk/about-us/about-the-issue.html

* The Glasgow team are currently busy collecting and collating responses from the SPC ‘Leadership Programme’ for Sergeants via a 6 month follow up evaluation.

* This month accessible via Online First: Fyfe, N., Stevenson, O. and Woolnough, P (2014) Missing persons: the processes and challenges of police investigation, Policing and Society , http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2014.881812. The paper draws on missing person case reconstructions and interviews with the officers involved with these cases to provide insights in to the different stages of the investigative process and some of the key influences which shape the trajectory of a missing person’s investigation.

February 2014

* In January the team was invited to provide a joint response to Police Scotland’s National Missing Person Strategy, which they did via the SLB briefing paper and accompanying documents.

* In February Olivia will travel to Bramshill for 3 days to meet with PNSC to find out about their existing provision and progress embedding our research in their training for PolSA’s.

* The Glasgow team are currently busy collecting and collating responses from PNSC Police Search Advisor 6 month follow up evaluations and later this month will be doing the same in Scotland.

January 2014

Happy New Year!

* The ‘Geographies of Missing people’ project were very pleased to have their ‘missing people, missing voices’ resources – Stuart’s story – read out at St-Martin-In-The-Fields, Trafalgar Square Carol Service. The service is organised by the charity Missing People, the UK Missing Person’s Bureau, and the Child Exploitation & Online Protection Centre (CEOP) and is a widely attended annual event to remember all those who will be missed at Christmas.

* In December the ‘Geographies of Missing People’ team launched new research findings via a report ‘Families living with absence: Searching for missing people’. The report contains research materials that draw on interviews with families living with missing experiences. This report is available to view and download via our website.

* In January the team are meeting with Kathleen Thomson of Police Scotland to brief her on the work we have been doing over the last 3 years with the police, returned missing people, and the families of missing people and discuss the potential for embedding our research findings in missing investigations for Scottish officers.

* In January Hester and Olivia will travel to London to meet with the KE project board of UK College of Policing and then travel to Harrogate to work with the Learning Strategy and Development Unit of the College to progress embedding our research in their training provision.

2013

December 2013

* The Geographies of Missing People project team wishes a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.

* On Monday 9th December at St-Martin-In-The-Fields, Trafalgar Square, the team is to attend the Carol Service organised by the charity Missing People, the UK Missing Person’s Bureau and the Child Exploitation & Online Protection Centre (CEOP) to remember all those who will be missed at Christmas.

* This month the team will be meeting with the project Advisory Group in London for the final time. The theme of the meeting will be ‘research impact and project legacies’. We are reporting on research impacts and outputs over the course of the research and discussing future ambitions.

* This month Hester and Olivia will be presenting to the Human Geography Research Group (HGRG) at the University of Glasgow on the theme ‘impact and research outcomes’.

* On Wednesday 18th December the Geographies of Missing People team launch new research findings via a report ‘Families living with absence: Searching for missing people’. The report contains research materials that draw on interviews with families living with missing experiences. This report is available to view and download via our website.

November 2013

* Preparations are underway for the Geographies of Missing People team to launch new research findings via a report ‘Searching for missing people: Families living with missing experience’. The report contains research materials that draw on interviews with families living with missing experiences. The report will be available to view via our website and more details will be available at the end of this month, so be sure to check back.

* As part of follow on KE, Hester and Olivia will be meeting with representatives from the UK College of Policing and the National Search Centre for a planning meeting to devise ways forward for incorporating the project research findings into the Colleges police education materials for the missing persons module. The work is due to commence in February 2014.

October 2013

* As winners of the SIPR Applied Policing Research Award, this month see’s the Geographies of Missing People team present on their research findings and meet winners of the other categories for a workshop at the Scottish Police College (2nd October, 10.00 to 16.30).

* The team are busy writing and have been asked to contribute chapters to ‘Missing Persons: a handbook of research’; ‘Cultural Geographies’; ‘Social and Cultural Geography’, as well as have articles in review in ‘Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice’ and ‘Cultural Geographies’. Publications will feature on the dissemination section of the website, so please check back from time to time for updates…

September 2013

* Preparations are well underway for the ‘Family Conference’ organised by the Missing People Charity and with support from the Geographies of Missing People Project. This will take place in September (7th) in London. Hester and Olivia will be sharing findings from our research and delivering a workshop: ‘Sharing and remembering your missing person’. For more information on the day and speakers please visit: https://www.missingpeople.org.uk/missing-people/families-and-friends/family-support-days

* From 2014 the project team have secured follow on funding for the Glasgow team to work with the UK College of Policing to develop police education materials for the missing person’s module.

August 2013

* Hester and Olivia along with colleagues at the University of Edinburgh have co-organised three part session for the 2013 RGS-IBG conference, London (27 – 30th Aug): ‘New Frontiers of Geographical Knowledge and Practice? Exploring Creative Methods and Encounter’ sponsored by Social and Cultural Geography Research Group and History and Philosophy of Geography Research Group. Further details about the sessions and papers can be found at: www.rgs.org

* At the end of the month Hester and Olivia will attending the RGS-IBG conference in London (27 – 30th) and will present a paper entitled, ‘ Inserting audio stories into spaces of silence’

* Hester and Olivia along with members of the Engineer Theatre Collective cast and Sandra Brown and colleagues from the Moira Anderson Foundation will take part in a post show talk for the award winning Engineer Theatre Collective production ‘Missing’ at the Edinburgh Fridge Festival, 22nd August at the underbelly.

July 2013

* Throughout July the team are busy delivering UK wide police training on missing persons. In Scotland Penny and Nick will input into the Sergeants Leadership Programme at Scottish Police College and in England will deliver training on missing persons to PolSA’s via the Police National Search Centre.

* On the 12th July the team have been invited to deliver a professional development input to the UK Missing Persons Bureau and former NPIA units including Crime Operational Support staff. Nick and Penny will deliver this at the home of the UKMPB, Bramshill

* Olivia will be attending the Emotional Geographies conference in Groningen (1 – 3rd July) and will present a paper also on behalf of Hester entitled, ‘No News Today’: the uses of ambiguous emotion and the absent presence of missing people’.

* Hester and Olivia were interviewed by members of the award winning Engineer Theatre Collective for their new production ‘Missing’ due to feature at the Edinburgh Fridge Festival.

* The team are busy writing over the summer and have been asked to contribute chapters to ‘Missing Persons: a handbook of research’; ‘Cultural Geographies’; ‘Social and Cultural Geography’, as well as have articles in review in ‘Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice’ and ‘Cultural Geographies’. Publications will feature on the dissemination section of the website, so please check back from time to time for updates…

June 2013

* On 19th June the Geographies of Missing People team launches research findings via a presentation and evening reception at the ‘1st International Conference on Missing Children and Adults: ‘Working Across Borders’. Findings from the project will be delivered via multiple resources, but include a report that contains research materials that draws on 45 in-depth interviews with people reported as missing and who have returned. Also available ‘Missing People, Missing Voices: Stories of Missing Experience’, an audio and textual resource produced via the use of verbatim words of returned missing adults aimed at breaking the silence around missing experiences. These resources are available to view and download via our website, as well as Missing People and UKMPB.

* On day two of 1st International Conference on Missing Children and Adults: ‘Working Across Borders’ the research team both facilitated the session ‘Missing Geographies’ and presented research finding alongside invited speakers, Professor Jenny Edkins and discussant Jacqui Karn. For more details visit http://www.port.ac.uk/departments/academic/icjs/csmp/conference/

* The team is engaged with Missing People and there will be a family event to take place later in the year. Check back for further details

May 2013

* Organised by the Geographies of Missing People project team a one day seminar on Missing Persons in the EU will be held on the 17th May 2013 in Brussels. The Programme includes presentations from international experts from Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, and the UK – for more information visit http://www.sipr.ac.uk/events/Missing_People_170513.php

* Preparations are underway for the Geographies of Missing People project launch. This will take place in June (18 – 20) at the 1st International Conference on Missing Children and Adults: ‘Working across Borders’. For more information about the launch to follow, but for conference details and speakers please visit: http://www.port.ac.uk/departments/academic/icjs/csmp/conference/

April 2013

* The ‘Geographies of missing people project’ team were given a Scottish Government sponsored, Scottish Policing Award for the ‘Applied policing research’ category. It was highly competitive, but the research was singled out for its excellence and innovation. We were awarded this prestigious annual award by Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Justice Kenny MacAskill. Hester and Olivia collected the prize for the academic-police researcher team at Tulliallan Castle, the home of the Scottish Police College.

* The Project Team travel to Washington DC to participate in a joint Centre for Evidence Based Crime Policy and SIPR Symposium at George Mason University (see, http://gunston.gmu.edu/cebcp/cebcpsymposium.html). We hope to see you there!

* Olivia and Penny travel to Washington DC to facilitate and deliver a networking and knowledge exchange session ‘Missing Persons: Spatial Profiling & Narratives of Missing Experiences’. The session will present findings from the research project so far and provide opportunities for sharing, developing and implementing this work in a wider international multi-disciplinary context. For more information click: http://gunston.gmu.edu/cebcp/missingpersonsapril9th.pdf

* Hester will present ‘No news today: the use of ambiguous emotion and the absent presence of missing people’, 17 April, University of Edinburgh, Seminar Room 4, Chrystal Macmillan Building.

March 2013

* The Geographies of Missing People research project has been nominated in the SIPR category for the Scottish Policing Awards. The awards will be presented by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Kenny MacAskill, at the Scottish Police College at Tulliallan, Monday 11 March 2013. For more info visit http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0041/00414520.pdf

* Last year the Geographies of Missing People team presented to the European Chapter of the FBI in Brussels. They have now been invited to talk to the UK Chapter and Olivia and Nick will present to the FBINAA on ‘The Police Response to Missing, Current Research’ at Lancashire Police Headquarters, Hutton Hall, 12th March 2013.

February 2013

* This month the team will be meeting with the project Advisory Group in London. The theme of this meeting is ‘research impact’, and we are reporting on our ambitions to use the research data we have collected over the next year.

* Olivia will be presenting in Edinburgh at the third annual Society for Evidence Based Policing conference on ‘Police Responses to Missing Persons’, 13th February 2013 (see, http://www.sebp.police.uk/news/events/)

* Preparations are underway for 3 members of the Project Team to travel to Washington DC at the beginning of April to participate in a joint Centre for Evidence Based Crime Policy and SIPR Symposium at George Mason University (see, http://gunston.gmu.edu/cebcp/cebcpsymposium.html).

* Nick and Penny are continuing to work with the Police National Search Centre to develop training materials for use during specialist Police Search Advisor training.

January 2013

* Penny Woolnough and the research project have featured in the Scottish Sun’s Missing at Christmas Campaign, and local and regional press

* In the new year the team will be examining data and preparing presentations and further publications.

2012

December 2012

The Geographies of Missing People project team wishes a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.

* Geographies of Missing People research is featured in ‘Making the Case for Social Sciences – Scotland’ a new booklet about the impact of social science – produced by the Academy of Social Sciences. The launch is on Tuesday 18th December 2012 at The Royal Society of Edinburgh, 22-26 George Street, Edinburgh 11.30am – 12.30pm followed by a drinks reception.

* The Geographies of Missing People research has been nominated in the SIPRA category for the Scottish Policing Awards. The winner of the category will be announced Monday 11 March 2013.

* The Geographies of Missing People research team will present at the Third Annual SEBP Conference organised by The Society of Evidence Based Policing and supported by the Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR). The conference will take place at the Playfair Library at the University of Edinburgh on Wednesday 13th February 2013.

* On Monday 10 December at St-Martin-In-The-Fields, Trafalgar Square, Olivia is to attend the Carol Service organised by the charity Missing People, the UK Missing Person’s Bureau and the Child Exploitation & Online Protection Centre (CEOP) to remember all those who will be missed at Christmas.

November 2012

* The web-stories call launched in September and featured in numerous media outlets https://geographiesofmissingpeople.org.uk/dissemination/media. If you are over 18-years-old and have a direct experience of being reported as missing, join this research project and write down your story www.geographiesofmissingpeople.org.uk/missingstories

* Family interviews are ongoing and Hester and Olivia will be in London this month to run a focus group with families of missing people

* We are delighted that as well as Dr Veerle Pashley from the University of Brussels, Cristina Cattaneo from the University of Milan and Alain Remue from the Belgian Federal Police have confirmed as a speakers for the EU Missing Workshop to be held next year (May 17th 2013) in Brussels. Please check back for further updates on the workshop…

* The Geographies of Missing People research team will be involved in an event to be held next year in Washington (8-10th April, 2013). The symposium ‘Translating policing research into practice: academic and practitioner perspectives’ is organised jointly by the Centre for Evidence-Based Crime Policy (George Mason University) and the Scottish Institute for Policing Research (Dundee University). Please check back for further updates on the workshop…

October 2012

* The project also featured on the ESRC homepage and in their ‘Impacts and Finding’ section: Read the article

* Family interviews begin this month

* The team meet with the National Search Centre to discuss the development of missing persons training packages.

* We are delighted that Dr Veerle Pashley from the University of Brussels has confirmed as a speaker for the EU Missing Workshop, to be held next year (May 17th 2013) in Brussels. Please check back for further updates on the workshop…

September 2012

* Olivia and Nick present to the European Chapter of the FBI in Brussels (5-6th September) on ‘The Police Response to reports of Missing People – research on current practice’

* Interviews with families of missing adults begin later this month.

* This month nationwide call for ‘Missing’ Stories was launched.

The charity Missing People welcomes and supports this latest campaign by a research project team in Glasgow and Dundee Universities, who today have launched a nationwide call asking adults who have an experience of being reported as missing to ‘tell their story’ via their website.

Stories or emails are deposited directly through the project website and will help develop valuable learning resources about people reported as missing.

Martin Houghton-Brown, Chief Executive of the Charity Missing People said: “We know that there are a variety of reasons why people going missing in the UK, and this additional research should provide valuable analysis to help us better support them and their families.

“A wider understanding of the way a missing person’s life develops whilst they are away, as well as detail on the reasons for their disappearance, should provide a very positive contribution to current research on the issue”

If you have a direct experience of being reported as missing, then this is your chance to tell your story. To find out more about the project, and how your story might make a difference, click the link on the home page of the website.

August 2012

* The mail-out to families of people reported as missing in Grampian is going ahead in August and Penny Woolnough of the Grampian Police is helping to project administer this.

* Towards the end of August via the project website and the charity Missing People, the team launches a nationwide call for missing stories from adult’s who have an experience of being reported as missing. The team hopes asking adults to ‘tell a story’ about being reported as missing via the website may be an easier way for some people to relay their experiences. Stories will be used for educational, training and awareness raising purposes. More information and launch date to follow…

July 2012

* Interviews with returned London mispers continue.

* The team have been approached by BBC Scotland’s Good morning Scotland breakfast show for a live radio interview. Olivia and Penny can be heard live on 4th July at around 7:40am http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074hf7

* The Evening Times newspaper ran story on the project which featured on 4th July. The article can be accessed here: http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/mobile/news/project-to-solve-mystery-of-the-missing.18050740

June 2012

* Interviews with returned London mispers continue.

* The team will meet at the Home Office in London with the Advisory Group to discuss their officer interview and case study materials and project progress.

* The team have co-organised two double sessions for the 2012 RGS-IBG conference, Edinburgh (3-5 July): ‘Policing’ geographies: engendering securities and insecurities’ sponsored by the Social and Cultural Geography Research Group and ‘“And now, the end is near”: geographies of dying and death’ sponsored by Geography of Health Research Group. The project will also feature in two other sessions at the conference. In the session ‘Impact Statements / Critical Pathways to Impact’, Penny Woolnough will draw on project examples to discuss the importance of engagement with end users, during the design, conduction and dissemination of research, to maximise impact. Hester Parr will present in John Wylie (University of Exeter) and Paul Harrison’s (Durham University) ‘Absence’ sessions. Further details about the sessions and papers can be found at: www.rgs.org

* From this month, for a month, three intern-students will be involved in the research. Dr Woolnough has an MSc student from Liverpool University undertaking research using Grampian Police missing person cancellation forms. The research aims to explore the behaviours exhibited by adults while they are missing using the statistical profiling technique Smallest Space Analysis. Hester Parr and Olivia Stevenson will supervise two undergraduate ‘student interns’, Sophie Shuttleworth and Ailsa Deans, who have been selected from a competitive pool of students for the annual ‘Geographical and Earth Science Prize Internship’ scheme at the University of Glasgow. Using collected interview material from London mispers Sophie and Ailsa will transcribe, code and analyse two interviews in relation to their geographical relevance, and then help to recompose interview accounts into a ‘story’. This is furthering the experimental work the team is engaged with, connected to the use of ‘storying’ for social purpose.

May 2012

* The team are half way through completing interviews with returned london mispers.

* Nick Fyfe had been appointed to the board for the new centre of missing studies at Portsmouth and Hester Parr is working closely with the centre to organise the ‘geographies of missing people’ strand of the international conference to be held in June 2013.

* In June the team will meet at the Home Office in London with the Advisory Group to discuss their officer interview and case study materials and project progress.

* We have just been invited to meet with and present project findings to the FBI at a European knowledge exchange event in September.

April 2012′

* In April Nick and Penny are presenting at the Joint Annual Missing Children and Adults Conference: ‘Prevention, Protection, Provision’, in Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Coventry. This year’s annual conference is hosted by the Missing Persons Bureau, Missing People, CEOP and the COMPACT Group and will attract academics, practitioners and policy-makers who work in the area of missing people. http://www.npia.police.uk/en/18793.htm

* As part of the University of Dundee Space and Society Research Group (SSRG) seminar series and in conjunction with SIPR, Nick has organised a missing persons workshop on 25th April. The workshop will bring together academics whose work cuts across different aspects of missing research. The workshop will include presentations from Professor Sue Black, Maria Maclennan, as well as the Geographies of Missing People Research team.

* Olivia and Hester will begin interviews with people reported as missing in London in April.

March 2012

*In March Hester and Olivia have a meeting with the charity Missing People where we are going to share initial findings from interview work in Grampian.

* The mail-out to people reported as missing in London is going ahead in March and David Bullamore of the MPS is helping to project administer this. Over 1500 letters will be sent out!

* The analysis of Grampian interviews with officers and people reported as missing will begin shortly.

February 2012

* Olivia begins interviews with MPS officers this month based on misper cases from the London MPS* The team have been approached by BBC Tees for a radio interview. Hester can be heard live on Wednesday 8th February at around 8am http://www.bbc.co.uk/tees/programmes/schedules

* Nick and Olivia will be giving a presentation at the NATIONAL COMPACT (MISPER) USER GROUP MEETING, in Hull. This is a quarterly meeting for Officers, COMPACT software developers and organisations involved with the police. They will use this meeting to run a focus group with officers on their experiences of missing person enquiries. * The team have organised two sessions for the 2012 AAG Annual Meeting, New York: ‘Policing Geographies: representations, materialities, practices’. Olivia will travel to New York to chair both sessions and present a paper on ‘The misper’: police case files and writing geographies of missingness’ http://meridian.aag.org/callforpapers/program/SessionDetail.cfm?SessionID=14607* Olivia will meet with the NYPD and LAPD to share best practice from the ‘geographies of missing people’ research project and gain a greater understanding of the challenges associated with missing persons in New York and LA.

‘

January 2012

* Olivia is compiling the case files of misper cases from the London MPS. Following analysis of these, 12 officers have been selected for interview. Olivia is currently meeting with MPS partners to confirm and negoatite access to these officers for interview.

* Hester will be giving a seminar at UCL Geography department on 26th Jan on ‘Missing geographies’, a summary of the project so far for a geographical and academic audience. This is part of a seminar series on ‘Missing geographies’: http://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/about-the-department/events-seminars/human-geography-seminars

* The project team will be meeting this month to consider the materials generated by the Grampian interviews with police officers investigating missing persons cases.

* This month sees the deadline for abstracts for conference sessions generated by the project. The ‘geographies of missing people’ research project is organising two sessions at the upcoming RGS-IBG conference in July. One on ‘Geographies of death’ (co-organised by Olivia Stevenson, Charlotte Kenten and Sarah Deedat) and one on ‘Policing geographies’ (co-organised by Tim Cresswell, Richard Yarwood, Hester Parr and Olivia Stevenson).