TEXAS, USA — When a child goes missing, it can be hard to stay calm and not assume the worst.
One Temple, Texas mother says her son went missing, but police told her to wait to file a report. She claimed that a police officer said she needed to wait 24 hours.
The mother took the post to a Facebook group called Temple City Watch. It caused quite the debate on social media because there's lots of confusion and misinformation when it comes to the laws in place.
Now parents are asking if there's really a waiting time, as many people believe, before you can file a report.
THE QUESTION
Do you have to wait to file a missing persons report?
OUR SOURCES
Heath Vanek, Assistant Police Chief for the Hewitt Police Department, Megan Price, Public Relations Coordinator for the Temple Police Department and Cierra Shipley, Public Information Officer for the Waco Police Department
THE ANSWER
No, you do not have to wait to file a missing person's report.
The waiting period is a myth. Parents should file a report immediately. You also do not have to wait to report an adult as missing.
WHAT WE FOUND
Central Texas agencies begin looking for a missing child as soon as a parent reports it.
"We're immediately going to start an investigation," Vanek told 6 News. "The longer they're missing, the more danger they are in, the less likely they are to be found."
Not only do departments work internally, but Vanek says they also enter the missing persons in a Texas Law Enforcement Telecommunications System.
"We put that out to every agency within a 200-mile radius of where the report is taken," Vanek said. "It broadcasts out to every agency within 200 miles, so if somebody in another county or another city happens to run across that person, they now know that that person is missing and then they will take custody of it if it's a child or take custody of that child and will reunite them with the parents or the guardian."
For Waco Police, there are policies in place.
"We have to create what's called a Form 8 and enter them into our system within two hours of getting that report," Shipley said.
Parents waiting to report their missing child is a common misconception.
"We don't tell people to wait," Shipley added.
There's been chatter online about parents needing to wait 24-48 hours before calling the police.
"There's no rule," Vanek said. "I guess the 24-hour or 48-hour rule that I keep hearing people throw around, it's in all these TV shows, these crime dramas. That's just random numbers that come up and people just take it as fact."
Vanek is a parent himself and encourages parents to download tracking apps like Life 360 or Find My iPhone.
"They're not going to go anywhere without a phone," Vanek said.
Price says Temple Police have a program called Kiddo Cards that can help relieve the stress of worried parents.
"It's a child identification card," Price said. "It has all the information that an officer would ask, or if you were to report a missing child on the card along with a photo of the child, so it's something that parents can keep on them, where if they are in a situation where they don't know where their child is, they're at an event, they get separated from each other, they can show this card to an officer and an officer will send a photo of the Kiddo Card to all other officers who are on patrol and they can start looking for the child."
Overall, police departments encourage parents to file a report immediately.
"Time is of the essence, so we always try to act swiftly and efficiently to locate them as soon as possible," Price said. "Missing a child and not knowing where they are, regardless of the age, is a nightmare for any parent."
You also do not have to wait any amount of time to report an adult as missing.
"Adults are loved by family as well, so we want to find them as well," Vanek said.
All agencies want to remind parents and loved ones to have an updated photo of the missing person and give as many details to authorities as possible when filing a report.
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