Missing Reports

It was last week when about a 100 people began searching for a man family members say was missing.

Fortunately he was quickly found safe and sound.

It was last week when about a 100 people began searching for a man family members say was missing.

Fortunately he was quickly found safe and sound.

But there's a lot that goes into the logistics when it comes to filing a report.

Our bobby martinez talks to chickasaw county sheriff james meyers about some challenges his deputies face and the power of social media... it can be a traumatic time for loved ones..

Filing a missing person report..

Hours can turn to days... and days can turn to months, and months can turn to years... chickasaw county sheriff james meyers says each case is different... but there are mandatory steps they must take to track down that missing person... from missing kids "acolumbus mother is pleading for the public's help to find her daughter who has been missing for 15 days."

To adults..... "48 year old roger taylor of lamar county has not been seen since march."

The end goal for law enforcement is to try and locate them safe and as fast as possible..

Meyers says detailed information is crucial.

"normally what we do in every case when somebody does call it a missing person, it is taken very serious and we just start from the very start.

We try to find all their contacts friends family members especially with today's age with multi media like facebook and the apps we find a lot of information out on that."

Meyers says social media has played a major part in solving cases.

"it's like a three legged stool is what i call it.

You have the public you have the media and you have law enforcement.

And with all three of those working together it just makes it a whole lot easier because tv and radio can get the word out there so fast and especially with facebook.

Every news agency now has a facebook page and a lot of folks now that's how they find out everything on facebook.

Just like us, we have a webpage for our sheriffs department.

We put a lot of information on there and it helps us tremendously."

Meyers says when a missing person has diminetia or other illnesses the challenges are different... so they must handle it with caution... "a lot of time we have to call in our search and rescue.

Which fire departments help us a lot on that.

There's a lot of training involved in that as far as how to talk to people because a lot of times you have to, every case is different you know, some of them get very violent where some of them revert back to being just like a child."

Reporting in chickasaw county..

Bobby martinez wcbi news..