North Yorkshire Police: Using CSAS in a Missing Persons enquiry

The situation

North Yorkshire Police were contacted after a 6-year-old child had not attended school for over two weeks. Their investigation discovered the house the child resided in was unsafe and uninhabitable. In addition to this, they received information that the child may require urgent medical attention. The mother was well known to social services, having previously had children removed from her care due to neglect. When asked to present herself to the police, her story about the whereabouts of herself and the child was inconsistent. The child’s case was escalated to ‘high-risk missing child’, and the mother was now wanted for neglect.

The process

Police knew that the mother of the child had a mobile phone in her possession. When police last spoke to her, she claimed to be on the train returning home, yet continued to change her story throughout the day to evade police. Once authority was in place and the CDRs received, the CSAS mapping function was used to map all the cell sites that mother had connected to that day. From the map it instantly became clear that mother and child were travelling from London to York. The mother’s device was connecting to cell sites close to train tracks and at all stations along the route, most recently at Doncaster.

Without the efficiency and quality of the CSAS software, the timely way the child was located would not have been possible. CSAS most certainly is a game changer.

Oliver Baxter – Communications Data Investigator / SPOC Covert Standards, North Yorkshire Police.

The result

The team then searched for trains coming into York from Doncaster, identifying the most likely train the missing child and mother would be on. The train departed Doncaster at 22:49, arriving in York at 23:15. The Critical Incident Inspector (CII) was immediately alerted, along with British Transport Police. Officers were dispatched to the station. Officers located the missing child and mother at York Train Station. The child was safeguarded and taken into temporary foster care. The mother was arrested for neglect and is still under investigation.