Missing Adult FAQs

• What is the Missing Adult Alert Plan?
  • Alert notification plan to notify citizens of an endangered missing adult over the ages of 65 or who has a mental empairment.
  • Utilizes the media to inform the public of a missing adult.
  • Provides descriptive information about the individual and the circumstances surrounding the individual's disappearance, to the public in the hope of enlisting public support in the search efforts.
  • The ultimate goal is rapid location of the individual.

• Who developed the Missing Adult Program?
  • The Ohio Legislature through SB87 created the Ohio Missing Adult Program.

• What are the Activation Criteria?
  • The local investigating law enforcment agency confirms that the individual is missing.
  • The individual is 65 years of age or older or has a mental impairment.
  • The disappearance of the individual poses a credible threat of immediate danger of serious bodily harm or death to the individual.
  • There is sufficient descriptive information about the individual and the circumstances surrounding the individual's disappearance to indicate that activation of the alert will help locate the individual.

• What is the public's role?
  • By swiftly alerting the public of a missing individual, the public can assist in the search efforts. The public is not to take action, but can assist police by reporting sightings or other associated information.
  • Anyone with information should immediately notify the police by calling your local law enforcement agency, 911 or 1-866-693-9171.

• What is law enforcement's role?
  • Expeditiously gather information about the individual from the public.
  • Analyze the information for investigative leads.
  • Disseminate the information to other law enforcement agencies in order to increase investigative efforts.
  • Verify that the alert is valid. If the case meets the Missing Adult criteria initiate a Missing Adult Alert.

• What is the Media's role?
  • The media has at its disposal the ability to notify large numbers of citizens of a Missing Adult in an extremely short period of time. Their role is to get the word out as quickly as possible to augment the search process.