Police are to set up a missing persons project to review the way they deal with such cases.
Each year about 10,000 people are reported missing in New Zealand - the vast majority of whom are found - but there has been little formal research on the subject, says Detective Inspector Cam Ronald, acting national crime manager.
He said the aim was to determine the number of missing people in New Zealand and to review the way police deal with the cases.
Wellington law student Gavin Dash went missing last year but the investigation into his disappearance was stepped up from a one-man search to a 25-person inquiry only after his family requested that police commit more resources.
The announcement also follows the case of a missing psychiatric patient from Auckland who turned up in Christchurch unable to remember his name.
Christchurch police last week appealed for information about the man, who thought he was from Wellington even though Auckland police had opened a missing persons file on him six weeks earlier.
Mr Ronald said the project would bring the country into line with international agencies, and enable police to have nationwide access to accurate, up-to-date information.
- Caren Inwood, NZPA
Missing persons system for review
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