What is the first thing an officer must establish for any missing persons case?

To properly assess a missing persons case, the officer's initial responsibility is to confirm whether there is indeed a missing person. This involves gathering preliminary information to determine the legitimacy of the report. It is crucial to distinguish between a genuine missing person scenario and cases where individuals may have simply changed locations without informing others, voluntarily gone away, or are safe but uncontacted. Establishing that a person is truly missing is fundamental to launching an appropriate investigation and mobilizing the necessary resources to locate the individual. Once it is confirmed that a person is missing, the officer can then investigate other details, such as the person's direction of travel, gender, and recent activities, but these steps come after establishing the missing status.