The national system used to track down missing people is like a "lottery", a former police officer has told SBS's Insight.
Mark Samways, a former New South Wales police officer with the Missing Persons Unit says the national database is inconsistent and too dependent on the initial contact with police, and what information the police officer decides to record in the system at the time.
“It appears that that [the system] is improving but it is still dependent on that first contact with police,” Samways tells Insight. “If you go into a police station in Perth, in Brisbane, in Melbourne, in Sydney, you should get the same response for your missing person's case. It shouldn't be dependent on state-based systems.
“That's where it's still a bit of a lottery.”
CrimTrac is a national database used to track both criminals and missing persons across the country. The system allows state, territory and Commonwealth police agencies to share information by doing a name-only search.
Police use CrimTrac in conjunction with their local State databases, which is a slow and problematic process, as revealed on tonight's Insight.
WATCH: The inadequacies of the national system
Around 35,000 people go missing in Australia every year, and nearly 1,600 remain missing long term.
Samways believes that because missing people tend to return home safely and quickly, finding people who are missing is also a low priority for police.
But Chief Inspector Paul Roussos from the NSW Police Missing Persons Unit disagrees. He says that all cases are given an initial risk assessment, and resources are distributed accordingly.
“If it comes in as a potential low risk assessment, then it may not get as much attention as others would.”
Chief Inspector Roussos admits that while there is still no adequate national system to track down missing people, the exchange of information between police units is robust.
“In the absence of a software package that is shared by all, people should not think that there is an absence of exchange of information, that's not the case.
“There is an incredibly strong network that runs between missing persons units.”
Do you think we're doing enough to track down missing people? Catch the full discussion tonight at 8.30pm on SBS ONE. The program will also be streamed live here.
Join the discussion by using the #insightsbs hashtag on Twitter or by commenting on Insight's Facebook page.
