French Police End Missing Persons Searches, Suggest Using Facebook 95
itwbennett writes "According to an announcement on a French government website, police have stopped current searches for missing adults and will not accept new search requests. 'Such 'searches in the interests of the family' were conducted under an administrative procedure almost a century old, introduced to help families separated during the upheavals of World War I to find missing relatives,' according to the French Ministry of the Interior. In a letter to police chiefs announcing the changes, the Ministry advised them to instead 'direct people towards social networks on the Internet, which offer interesting possibilities.'"
So once again... (Score:5, Funny)
the French surrender.
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the French surrender.
Sacrebleu!
You beat me to it.
Re:So once again... (Score:5, Informative)
Nothing to see here. The French procedure does not correspond to that used in the US. Searches for children or persons who are clearly in danger continue.
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Not really, there's a presumption that if somebody's been missing for more than a given amount of time that they're in danger, unless there's evidence to the contrary. Having a police report also means that if they're spotted by police that the police will likely make contact.
Facebook is something to augment efforts to locate somebody, not to replace the work of police officers. By the time you've determined that somebody isn't in danger, you've probably already located them anyways.
And yes, FB is probably
Re:So once again... (Score:4, Insightful)
Not really, there's a presumption that if somebody's been missing for more than a given amount of time that they're in danger, unless there's evidence to the contrary.
Then it's a bad presumption. Most people go missing because they want to. You've got to look for children, senile people and people with mental health issues, because they may not have the capacity for making a rational choice to leave, and the chances of them coming to harm are higher. But adults who get out of contact with their families. In most cases it's because they don't like them, or have some issue they'd rather get away from.
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It's not a bad presumption at all.
What precisely do you tell the families of people who wind up being found chopped to bits and buried in somebody's basement, that there wasn't sufficient evidence to take it seriously? There's no reason why the police need to report back where it is that they find these people, but they do have a responsibility to look into such things in case something has happened.
Plus, how do you know that somebody doesn't have unknown mental health issues? There's a lot more people out
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What precisely do you tell the families of people who...
Sound policy is not made from the category of question "What precisely do you tell the families of people who..."
You can't investigate every possible crime that might have happened although no one has any evidence to say it did.
If you did you'd have to find something to tell the people who's actual reported crime wasn't investigated properly, because the police were too busy wasting time chasing someone who chose to leave home without explaining.
Plus, how do you know that somebody doesn't have unknown mental health issues?
Again, you can make policy based on "How do you know that some
Re:So once again... (Score:4, Insightful)
And if there's foul play, there's likely to be something indicating that.
Yeah, like the person is missing!
In fact, the standard followed by most jurisdictions is: the absence of any indication of intent to disappear is in fact evidence of either an accident or foul play.
Police make at least an effort to find people that simply disappear (after a suitable waiting period), and at least interview friends and workmates etc for changes in behavior, look at credit card usage, and request cell records, before throwing in the towel. (The effort is actually much larger if its a missing woman than if it is a man.) Its not an unreasonable level of effort, nor does it take a great deal of resources. (Some of this stuff is automated these days).
Most people who CHOOSE go missing end up defrauding someone out of some amount of money. Unpaid rent, unpaid credit card bills, saddling a spouse with a huge debt, etc. Its not a victimless choice.
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Fraud is against the law in all 50 states. It is definitely a matter for the police.
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It's a world view that we value human life. There's no reason why the police need to report back on where they found the individual. Just reporting back that they were found safe and sound ought to be sufficient.
Without actually doing the search you have no way of knowing what happened.
And BTW, I don't speak or read French, so quoting TFA in French isn't going to help you make your case.
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actually AFAIK that's exactly what happens here in the states, if someone goes 'missing' of their own free will, are reported missing, and then are found by police. the cops'll ask them if things are fine, more or less, and if the person's desire was to lose all contact.. the police will say that the person was found, and is fine, and nothing else.
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AHHHHH!!!!
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This is such a weird meme. We (the British) has our arses kicked and had to flee on a bunch of fishing boats we cobbled together, leaving all our valuable shit on the beech while the French covered our retreat. It was only after we buggered off and left them that they surrendered.
Simple fact is our military was a bad joke at the time. If Hitler had carried on over the channel we would have quickly been defeated. It was only his mistake in assuming that a naval led invasion would have failed without first wi
Re:HELP!!! (Score:5, Informative)
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Please, this is /. we know that no one reads the article.
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So, taxpaying adults are shit out of luck, while the all-around drains on government that are children get special treatment? What the hell?
Do you frequently get lost?
Re:HELP!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
So, taxpaying adults are shit out of luck
Unlike children, adults have a right to disappear and start a new life somewhere else. Unless there is a reasonable suspicion that a law has been broken, the police should not be spending tax dollars to find people that don't want to be found.
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They can also be kidnapped, in an accident, or killed. They can also disappear to avoid debts and other obligations, rather than just wanting a new life. Stopping searching entirely sounds like a really bad idea. For those who did just want a new life, the cops don't have to tell anyone they found them.
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Also, if the issue is debt / other obligations then that's yet another case that you should use a Private Investigator to find them. The fact that someone owes YOU m
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If it's an adult and there is no indication of a crime AGAINST the missing person, then the correct solution is a Private Investigator. Not the police. The police should be focusing their efforts on stopping actual crimes and responding to actual events... not highly improbable events with no evidence to back up that the event even occurred.
Well, you know, when women are kidnapped and sold as sex slaves, there's usually no indication of a crime. The only indication is that they're suddenly missing.
Also, if the issue is debt / other obligations then that's yet another case that you should use a Private Investigator to find them. The fact that someone owes YOU money doesn't mean EVERYONE ELSE should pay for the search. There's a pretty good chance that in most cases more resources will be spent to find the person that what than they even owed to start with - especially if it's the police doing the searching.
So, if someone steals from me, the police shouldn't do anything either, right? I mean, he stole from ME, why should everyone else pay for me to get my stuff back?
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the police should not be spending tax dollars to find people that don't want to be found.
Or Euros, for that matter.
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Unlike children, adults have a right to disappear and start a new life somewhere else.
Sort of depends on how many bills and debts they are skipping out on, doesn't it?
I doubt anyone other than a single migrant worker can simply disappear without someone else holding a bag of rent bills, electric bills, child support, or some such.
Disappearance is seldom a victimless event.
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Unlike children, adults have a right to disappear and start a new life somewhere else.
Sort of depends on how many bills and debts they are skipping out on, doesn't it?
No it doesn't. The police are not private debt collectors. If you extend credit to a deadbeat, that is your problem.
rent bills
Whenever I have rented, I was required to pay a deposit + first and last month's rent. So if I skip out, I lose my deposit.
electric bills
In America it is common to be billed for electricity. But I have lived in other countries where it is pre-paid, and that worked fine.
child support, or some such.
Skipping out on court ordered child support is a crime, so it is reasonable for the police to get involved in that case.
Re:HELP!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
His children example was used for shockvalue, but the point is still the same - for the most part, if someone dissappears without a trace, foul play is involved. They MIGHT have just decided to skip town, but most people don't. Lets say its not your 9 year old daughter. Lets say your 23 year old daughter never comes home from work. I'd like to hear something besides "Check Facebook" from the local authorities.
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Exactly.
Disappearing to skip out on child support payments (as well as other debts and bills) is a big issue.
And probably those who defend the "right" to disappear and start over somewhere else 1) are male, 2) have personal involvement in such issues, and 3) think that saddling their Ex with huge bills "servers her right".
Intentionally disappearing is almost always a method to defraud someone else.
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Here in Utah, Susan Powel disappeared w/o any trace . . .
Nina Reiser disappeared with almost no traces
at least 1 of those Cleveland women found was an adult with next to no traces of foul play
People don't just disappear with out a reason.
The cops are doing this because its a lot of work that shows little results. IE, they feel it's a waste of time.
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The point is still irrelevant, since they are not stopping investigations of sudden disappearances.
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problem sovled
Re:HELP!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem seems to be in the phrase 'missing person', which I guess is a translation thing. When people hear 'missing person', they think of someone who has suddenly disappeared - didn't come home from work, etc. Those cases they will still investigate, of course. What they are no longer doing is helping to find a person you have lost contact with (and I can't imagine their are many police forces in the world that would help with that under normal circumstances).
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That makes far more sense. I think the summary could have done a better job in explaining that.
I'm surprised that they did look for people that were missing in that fashion. Then again, after 2 world wars, I can see why they would have done so in the past. Although it does seem like a bit of a risk for stalkers.
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The problem seems to be in the phrase 'missing person', which I guess is a translation thing
I am a native french speaker, and I have readen the letter from ministry of interior to police chiefs. The document does not tell about missing persons, or any term that could be translated that way. It only deals with recherches dans l'intérêt des familles, which one could translate into "searches for the family interest".
The original document organizing the procedure is about personne recherchée "researched person", and Personne disparue, which you could translate into "missing person", or
And stolen things (Score:5, Funny)
Should be looked for on ebay.
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I'm sure cops everywhere will continue to "outsource" their roles in the wake of diminishing budgets. (Although this does sound like a headline from The Onion.)
In related news:
French police end burglary investigations, citing no difference between thieves and beggars besides politeness.
Cutbacks end inquiry into Suicides after being labeled "dying early", which is not technically a crime.
Current Homicide investigations will be completed, but no new murders are allowed under French Law.
Police Stations continue to operate with funds fully dedicated to ensuring the success of France's Pastry Industry.
Sensationalist summary (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Sensationalist summary (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, translation is:
Allows you to search for a missing person, your family, to renew relations with her. Does not apply to missing persons in alarming conditions suspicious or criminal.
So this kind of search is no longer available with the state help. /. ?
Ok... Is it really worth a story on
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Only if you leave out the important details and get people worked up over nothing. You know, standard operating procedure here.
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The problem is that the translation was wrong. As you put it, it's a non-story, but as the summary puts it, it's something very strange and backwards minded. But yeah, if it's just getting people back in touch that have lost contact, as in grown apart or moved away, that's not something that the police should be dealing with.
It's the sudden unexplained disappearances that they will continue to investigate that they should be investigating.
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So, apparent abductions and unexplained disappearances would still get police assistance like you would expect.
But how can they know if it's a cleverly done abduction or not? So if you're a meticulous kidnapper, it's open season on adults in France now?
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...starts dusting off the passport and packing some clothes and chloroform
Re:Sensationalist summary (Score:5, Funny)
remember to keep it under 3oz or you might not get through airport security.
Re:Sensationalist summary (Score:4)
Simple. If the person went missing today (or very recently) they will do a normal 'missing person' investigation. If it is 'I wonder were cousin Pierre is, last I heard he was moving up north', they won't.
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Is it too much to consider that if that person could be found on Facebook you most likely wouldn't bother going to the police at all?
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According to another poster, that is exactly what happened. Almost nobody used the police for that anymore. The few who did use the police probably could have found the person themselves if they tried at all. This announcement is just officially ending that service, along with a reminder that there are effective tools for doing this work yourself.
Re:Sensationalist summary (Score:5, Informative)
This law was to find your family members after long lost of contacts (years). It was to help family member reconnect after end of WW1 WW2 and after the end of colonisation in Asia and Africa. The administration do the research find the person, the ask him/her if he want to reconnect with you and if he/she wants give you the address. It's stopped because fewer and fewer people use it in the last decade.
If someone is missing, police still do the research.
If Someone need to be found to pay kids pension, to helps his/her parents, for fraud or taxes evasion, or even for some kind of family Inheritance there are others laws.
They suggest hiring Liam Neeson (Score:5, Funny)
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Feel free to make a list of other countries where the police will continue to find people for you just because you are related to them and can't be bothered to look them up in any other way.
Go ahead. I'll wait.
Status Update... (Score:5, Funny)
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Cutbacks cause French Police to raise the 'ransom' bar. "Demanding large sums of money does not mean your babysitter is a kidnapper", says spokesman for the Assemblée Nationale, who is also campaigning to keep their monthly salary from falling below 7,043.69 euros (USD 10,389.49), "Anything less and there will be hell to pay!"
Misleading summary... (Score:3)
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Killjoy.
Problems with missing people searches on facebook (Score:3)
Harm can be done by spreading such a search on facebook, if it isn't legitimate.
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The general idea I think is that the police would post it on their official facebook page, assuming french police have one. I've (unfortunately) had experience with exactly this.. being on facebook didn't work though and the person is still missing. I found that most people just don't pay attention to such things, there are just too many faces in the crowds we all walk through every day.
About this (Score:1)
This is stupid, since dead bodies normally don't call or go on Facebook. If the missing person is dead, you won't find here body unless you search for it, if you find it to start with.
Sometimes missing people are never found at all.
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This is stupid, since dead bodies normally don't call or go on Facebook.
You jest, but I still get birthday auto-notices from FB for friends who died years ago. Unless you have a relative w/ access to your FB account, it's apparently impossible to delete the account, or even change the owner's status to "Dead. Stop wishing the corpse happy birthday."
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I don't think they would mind being un-friended.
Makes senses (Score:2)
Onion cross-post to Slashdot (Score:2)
Bof (Score:2)
They won't only suggest you try "fassbeurk".
They'll also stick out their bottom lip and do that palms up shrug thing.