Missing persons, Commissioner Ordine: search techniques refined, but report immediately

In Italia, 69 people disappear every day, more men than women. In 2024, there were 24,705 reports of disappearances, compared to 14,628 finds. As of 31 December 2024, there were therefore 10,077 active reports. Interestingly, 60 per cent of the finds occur within 24/72 hours. And over the years, people are also found who disappeared long ago. A hope for those looking for loved ones who have been missing for years. This is why the government's extraordinary commissioner for missing persons Saverio Ordine urges people not to waste time when a person goes missing. And to trigger an immediate search with techniques that have been refined over the years. Missing persons are the subject of today's episode of Caleidoscopio, the video column for looking at the world in colour and chiaroscuro.

Encouraging data emerged from the 2024 report, with the decrease of missing persons and the improvement of the finding index. 'New technologies and the refinement in the training of operators,' explains Commissioner Ordine, 'have been indispensable in finding missing persons. In the first place, Law 203 of 2012 and the subsequent provincial plans of the prefectures that came out of it were crucial. It was fundamental to have established a real culture of searching for missing persons, which until then had been motivated by public safety needs, but was not so central to the actions of the police. Instead, in the last fifteen years, it has become so'.

"The generic search techniques used by the police forces, Carabinieri, Police, Finance, Fire Brigade, which are becoming more and more precise, more and more refined, have also been very useful in the search for missing persons. Just think of the use of mobile phones in monitoring or drones, molecular dogs. Everything that has been used for investigation, after 2012, fortunately also serves to search for missing persons'.

"The most exposed are minors," explains Commissioner Ordine, "especially in the 14-18 year old sector. In the last three years, for example, in 2023, 2024 and 2025, minors absorbed 71 to 75 per cent of the total number of reported disappearances. And foreign minors, especially unaccompanied minors, almost only they have absorbed 49 to 60 per cent of the missing persons reports. Then of course there are the frail elderly with Alzheimer's, with degenerative diseases, as well as other categories of the frail, such as drug addicts. But by far the big problem is minors'.

It is crucial not to waste time when a person goes missing. "One must immediately report it," recalls Ordine, "to the nearest police station, so that the rescue machine can be immediately set in motion and then allow the prefectures, in the following hours, to set in motion, if necessary, the provincial plans that allow the use of many more forces. And if necessary set up control rooms and also the use of television and journalistic media'. Order also emphasises the exceptional contribution of family associations. And he repeatedly emphasises that it is essential to act immediately: 'Just think of cases such as that of a person with suicidal intentions, the very young person who may be lured into terrible situations, or the fragile person. Making a report early is very important in order to keep a fast track of the findings so that the damage can be reduced". As in the case of the two young girls who got lost in the last few days in Crema and were found in Bergamo. Two young girls aged 12 and 14. 'Finding them immediately,' the commissioner recalls, 'is absolutely necessary.