THERE were more than 4,000 reports of missing people over the last 12 months in Dorset, police have revealed.

The force has given an insight into the work of its missing persons team, which received an average of 12 reports of missing people per day between August 2016 and July 2017.

The startling figure was highlighted as part of a video published by the Devon and Cornwall Police and Dorset Police Alliance Operations department.

Finding missing people represents a “significant proportion of police work”, according to the department.

In Dorset, there were 4,430 reports of missing people in the last 12 months.

Between August 2015 and July 2016, there were 3,286 – a 35 per cent increase.

A spokesman for Dorset Police said: “A person doesn’t need to be missing for any specific period of time before the police can be notified, but it will obviously vary from incident to incident – a two to three-year-old child who has gone missing in a shopping centre to an adult that hasn’t come home from work at the normal time.”

While missing people are found in a variety of locations, they are often close to where they were reported missing from, according to police.

Every active missing person report is reviewed by an inspector every 12 hours to ensure police are exploring all possible channels to return the person home. Most people are found within 24 hours.

While the media publish missing person appeals on a frequent basis, police do not always issue these appeals as the “volumes are too high and the use of media isn’t always appropriate”, the spokesman added.

Police will continue an active search until there is “no viable chance of locating the person”, although appeals to the public may continue for some time after this.

Susannah Drury, director of policy and research at the charity Missing People, said when someone goes missing "it is nearly always a sign that something is wrong."

"The high number of people, especially children, who are reported missing more than once shows that it is crucial to have a framework in place to prevent people being vulnerable to harm by going missing again and again. This should include one-to-one support for children and adults who have returned from being missing as well as excellent inter-agency work between professionals.

"Working together, we could break the cycle and provide better support.”

Last month, Dorset Police and Devon and Cornwall Police became the first police forces in the UK to launch a fully-operational drone unit to aid officers in missing person searches.