Are Amaral's views the best for a missing child case?

[gilet]

In light of this

Missing teenager Esme Smith has been found safe and well after a member of the public recognised her from media reports about her disappearance.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2429837/Esme-Smith-Missing-Farnham-schoolgirl-safe-police-London.html

and this

Surrey Police Detective Superintendent Jon Savell said the public had played a key role in tracking down the 14-year-old.

He said: "Throughout our search for Esme, we were very fortunate to have the support of the local community, Esme's school, her friends, the public and the media, and it was as a direct result of the media activity that she was found.

"We have seen huge use of social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, throughout our search and this has been really beneficial but we would now ask that these pages are taken down."

http://news.sky.com/story/1145352/esme-smith-found-safe-after-11-day-search

do other posters agree that the views of Goncalo Amaral appear rather out of touch and outdated?

"... So much effort and so much money spent financing the appeals in the press for witnesses leaves us wondering; we are not convinced of the pertinence of this method that consists of requesting help from the population to resolve a case."

http://goncaloamaraltruthofthelie.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-max=2009-06-18T09:43:00-07:00&max-results=1

[stephen25000]

In light of this

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2429837/Esme-Smith-Missing-Farnham-schoolgirl-safe-police-London.html

and this

http://news.sky.com/story/1145352/esme-smith-found-safe-after-11-day-search

do other posters agree that the views of Goncalo Amaral appear rather out of touch and outdated?

"... So much effort and so much money spent financing the appeals in the press for witnesses leaves us wondering; we are not convinced of the pertinence of this method that consists of requesting help from the population to resolve a case."

http://goncaloamaraltruthofthelie.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-max=2009-06-18T09:43:00-07:00&max-results=1

How can you logically compare these two cases ?

Pray tell.

[icabodcrane]

A 14 year old runaway who was missing for 11 days  ?

What point are you making  ? 

[Mo Stache]

A 14 year old runaway who was missing for 11 days  ?

What point are you making  ?

The use of public appeals in missing people cases. While in the UK it is used and is successful, Amaral is not convinced of this method.

eta in the light of the above; Are Amaral's views the best for a missing child case? is what is being asked. 

[Luz]

I was expecting Caylee Anthony's case...

[Redblossom]

I thought it was general PJ policy, not Amarals pet theory, ie no  media, no publicity...why they have that I dont know..at least thats the impressionI got at the begnning of the case, unless they want nothng but police press conference info and statements, then again  Im sure the Portuguese media were reporting on it from day one

Confused....


eta I agree a runaway teenager is not the best example to give likely to be spotted on cctv, or by a member of the public, what missing abducted  three year olds have been found by the public looking out for them? They are  *hidden* obviously, or worse. In any case mllions of people in so many countries had Madeleines image beamed into their living rooms day in day out for so long, despite what official PJ policies are, what did it yield? In this case publicityy didnt work. So i dont get the question.

Edited for afterthoughts

[Mo Stache]

I thought it was general PJ policy, not Amarals pet theory, ie no  media, no publicity...why they have that I dont know..at least thats the impressionI got at the begnning of the case, unless they want nothng but police press conference info and statements, then again  Im sure the Portuguese media were reporting on it from day one

Confused....

The genral PJ policy is not to engage with the public, but under enormous pressure from international media, it was accommodated. Unfortunately still then, it wasn't useful. So they had the opportunity to ask for public information, did introduce a plan to liaise with the media/publi,c but still did not make full use of this technique that is widely used and is successful in other countries.
 

WITNESS STATEMENT OF DAVID HAMILTON PILDITCH

I am a General News Reporter at The Daily Express. make this statement in response to arequest of the Leveson Inquiry (the "Inquiry") to the solicitors for Express Newspapers dated25 November 2011 with regard to the circumstances surrounding the publication of articlesin The Daily Express between September 2007 and January 2008 about Drs McCann.

This lack of official co-operation between the police and the media, in my view, fatally flawed the investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance from day one..In this country the relationship between the police and the media is probably at its closest during a missing person inquiry. In the absence of any substantial leads the police rely on the public to provide information of possible sightings or people acting suspiciously, This helps ensure the police have as much information as possible available to them.
8. In Portugal, there were none of the basic strategies or systems that we would expect to be put into place in an investigation of this kind.
9. As Gerry McCann pointed out in his statement the lack of formal dialogue between the Policia Judiciaria (P J) and the public was incredibly frustrating for everybody involved.
10. In the critical early hours and days after Madeleine McCann disappeared there were no public appeals. It took a number of days before police released details of the clothes Madeleine was wearing when she disappeared - and that was only done under enormous pressure from the international media.
11. Again under pressure from the media, the police held a series of press conferences in the early days after Madeleine’s disappearance which turned out to be farcical because no useful information was forthcoming.
12. A detective from Lisbon who specialized in investigating art thefts was brought in as a media liaison officer. Unfortunately he refused to confirm or deny any information that was put to him and was unable to give any guidance either on or off the record. In short, his appointment was a complete waste of time

http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/wp-con ... lditch.pdf

[Luz]

I thought it was general PJ policy, not Amarals pet theory, ie no  media, no publicity...why they have that I dont know..at least thats the impressionI got at the begnning of the case, unless they want nothng but police press conference info and statements, then again  Im sure the Portuguese media were reporting on it from day one

Confused....

Only the McCann didn't see the press release that the PJ made early morning in the 4th of May, alerting for the disappearance of the child and with the exhibition of a picture, that was kept for months.
What the PJ condemned was the release of specific traits like the eye, the brown spot in one of the legs,...because it could lead the "abductor" to harm the child.

[Mo Stache]

Only the McCann didn't see the press release that the PJ made early morning in the 4th of May, alerting for the disappearance of the child and with the exhibition of a picture, that was kept for months.
What the PJ condemned was the release of specific traits like the eye, the brown spot in one of the legs,...because it could lead the "abductor" to harm the child.

Not according to this statement:

In the critical early hours and days after Madeleine McCann disappeared there were no public appeals. It took a number of days before police released details of the clothes Madeleine was wearing when she disappeared - and that was only done under enormous pressure from the international media.

[icabodcrane]

The use of public appeals in missing people cases. While in the UK it is used and is successful, Amaral is not convinced of this method.

eta in the light of the above; Are Amaral's views the best for a missing child case? is what is being asked.

The McCanns ran the biggest and most expensive public appeal for a missing person in history

Does that say anything about the use of public appeals in cases like this  ?

[gilet]

It does not actually shock me that certain posters are simply pronouncing confusion and puzzlement.

There is a small amount of logic required to see the comparison.

This child was found because of a widespread public appeal.

This child may not have been found if there had been no such appeal.

I am sure that many, many Portuguese Police hold the same views but I am not aware that others have chosen to lay their cards on the line in the way Amaral has done and express this view in a book designed to make him profit. It is for that reason that I have used him as an example and a quote from him to open the debate.

He suggests that the extra effort that the police have to make to deal with the information received from the public is a waste. I think he is wrong.

It is a simple question. Do his views reflect best practice when children have gone missing or is the best practice that which is encouraged in this country, Ireland, the USA, France, the Netherlands etc that as wide an appeal as possible should be made and as much use of the public as possible should be made.

My own opinion is that the view that he expresses in his book is outmoded and that the welfare of the child is best served by as much publicity as possible and as much help the public can give as well as the use of technology and in particular social media.

As it happens I have seen a number of anti McCanns over the years use social media (particularly Twitter) to highlight the cases of missing children. How do those actions match the view of Amaral? I don't believe that they do.

[Redblossom]

Only the McCann didn't see the press release that the PJ made early morning in the 4th of May, alerting for the disappearance of the child and with the exhibition of a picture, that was kept for months.
What the PJ condemned was the release of specific traits like the eye, the brown spot in one of the legs,...because it could lead the "abductor" to harm the child.

Thanks Luz, I remember that part, Gerry being warned not publicise the eye defect but went ahead anyway despite thnking the abductor mght do somethng to it!! Because it was a good marketing ploy, bizarre thnking IMO

Thanks Mostache, all very complicated..but I wouldnt really take every thing uttered at Leveson as the gospel truth....too many parties with too many agendas vyng there imo

[Mo Stache]

The McCanns ran the biggest and most expensive public appeal for a missing person in history

Does that say anything about the use of public appeals in cases like this  ?

The question is the use of public appeals by the police and the use or in this case, non use of it as a tool to help the investigation.
IF the PJ police had done the appeals I am sure they would have had a better response than the McCann's, as many were weary of the parents 'methods' from the word go.   

[gilet]

The McCanns ran the biggest and most expensive public appeal for a missing person in history

Does that say anything about the use of public appeals in cases like this  ?

Two comments spring to mind in response to that.

The initial reaction of the PJ was to offer absolutely no information at all which is entirely at odds with what English people, international media and press would expect. The McCanns had to initiate a campaign because of the lack of action in that regard from the PJ.

The other comment is that in general it doesn't say much about such campaigns at all other than that some are successful and some are not. Unfortunately in the case of the McCanns, so far there has been no successful outcome.

But because only some such campaigns are successful does not as your question implies mean that no such campaigns should be undertaken.

[Redblossom]

It does not actually shock me that certain posters are simply pronouncing confusion and puzzlement.

There is a small amount of logic required to see the comparison.

This child was found because of a widespread public appeal.

This child may not have been found if there had been no such appeal.

I am sure that many, many Portuguese Police hold the same views but I am not aware that others have chosen to lay their cards on the line in the way Amaral has done and express this view in a book designed to make him profit. It is for that reason that I have used him as an example and a quote from him to open the debate.

He suggests that the extra effort that the police have to make to deal with the information received from the public is a waste. I think he is wrong.

It is a simple question. Do his views reflect best practice when children have gone missing or is the best practice that which is encouraged in this country, Ireland, the USA, France, the Netherlands etc that as wide an appeal as possible should be made and as much use of the public as possible should be made.

My own opinion is that the view that he expresses in his book is outmoded and that the welfare of the child is best served by as much publicity as possible and as much help the public can give as well as the use of technology and in particular social media.

As it happens I have seen a number of anti McCanns over the years use social media (particularly Twitter) to highlight the cases of missing children. How do those actions match the view of Amaral? I don't believe that they do.

And Madeleine wasnt found despite the same, you can argue the toss as much as you like, little comparison, between the two examples in any case and its hardly veiled this is another bash Amaral thread, tedious..enjoy though