On Tuesday, March 6th, members of AMBER Alert Europe’s Police Expert Network, consisting of over 50 law enforcement experts from 17 European countries, joined a pioneering virtual meeting to exchange best practices in dealing with missing persons cases. These best practices will be combined in a guide, which police experts can consult when solving missing children cases, enabling them to save these children quickly and effectively.
Several law enforcement experts from the Czech Republic, France, Ireland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Poland and the United Kingdom listened in while Lieutenant colonel Radka Čapková of the Czech Police Missing Persons Unit presented a memorable missing persons case. The case, which was cracked by teaming up with Slovenian police, underlined the importance of cross-border cooperation between police forces in missing persons cases.
Expanding the search for missing children across borders
With 37.5 percent of Europeans living near the border, a missing child can easily cross to a neighbouring country. Because of the network, police experts know exactly who is the single point of contact for missing children in another country.
Frank Hoen, founder of AMBER Alert Europe: “The Police Network wants to take down barriers to improve the search for missing children across Europe. Now that there are no internal borders in the EU, it becomes even more crucial to communicate and cooperate with police forces from neighbouring countries. This kind of collaboration is unprecedented.”
Police Expert Network
The Police Expert Network, which was established in 2014, consists of active police experts as well as specialists with years of experience in the field of missing persons. In order to save more missing children across Europe, members can quickly contact and consult each other about missing children cases. The Police Expert Network also provides training to law enforcement authorities on how to deal with missing children cases.
