Missing person investigations in Australia and overseas

On this page

Overview
How to report
How we help

A missing person case

You don't have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing.

If you're concerned for someone's safety or welfare and you don't know where they are, file a missing persons report at your local police station.

A missing person can be anyone: a child, an adult or a senior.

Over 98% of people reported missing are located, and almost all these people are found alive and well.

Find out more about missing persons in Australia

Long-term missing persons

A long-term missing person is someone who has been missing for more than 3 months. In Australia there are over 2,500 people who meet this description.

The National DNA Program for Unidentified and Missing Persons helps to bring some closure to families by solving long-term missing persons cases.

If you are a family member of a long-term missing person, you can help us investigate.

Provide details through our:

Missing Person Details Form

This helps our police and forensic teams link unidentified and missing person cases.

How to report

Going missing is not a crime.

I have information about a missing person

If you have any information about a missing person case, call Crime Stoppers on1800 333 000.

You won't have to identify yourself. Crime Stoppers will pass your information to the right unit or officer.

Someone I know is missing

If you need to report a missing person, visit your local police station. See what types of information to take with you.

From your report, state or territory police will take the lead on investigating. Keep records along the way, including case numbers.

When a relative or friend is reported missing, there's a large emotional impact. We provide support to families and friends of missing persons.

How we help

As Australia's national policing agency, we don't investigate individual missing person cases. That responsibility sits with the state or territory police service or local law enforcement in the case of overseas investigations.

What we can do is coordinate a national approach. That's the key role of the National Missing Persons Coordination Centre (NMPCC).

Our mission is to reduce the number of people who go missing and the devastating impact this has.

We manage the Australian Missing Persons website and public register.

We're active on social media, helping to raise awareness of missing persons and the efforts to find them. We also commission national research to identify trends and issues around missing persons.

We champion awareness events, like:

We work to strengthen cooperative arrangements between:

state and territory police
government bodies
non-government agencies.

We also connect with international missing persons investigations through liaison with INTERPOL Canberra.

Police Consultative Group on Missing Persons

The NMPCC chairs and funds the Police Consultative Group on Missing Persons (PCGMP). This cooperative effort between the AFP and all state and territory Missing Persons Units helps to drive policy and procedure around missing persons cases. Through the work of the PCGMP, we're helping to ensure a consistent approach and response to these cases across Australia.