YORK COUNTY, Maine — When people go missing, members of the community often rally together to try and help, but it also leaves people wondering what the process is for when police decide someone who has disappeared is officially a missing person.
Often another concern people have is, which posts can the public trust if so many fake scam posts are circulating?
Chief Deputy Jeremy Forbes of the York County Sheriff's Office says the first step investigating a missing persons case is determining the reason for the disappearance through communicating with friends and family. "We have to weigh the Constitutional rights of a 20 year old. Are they missing or want to get away?"
Before putting someone's face out in the public, Forbes said they have to determine whether it may be mental-health related and then consider the risks. "Have they texted someone they want to hurt themselves? That's different," Forbes said.
Once police decide the case should go out into the public, it usually goes onto social media, if it hasn't already. However, Forbes is aware real posts can be hard to verify, especially with scams popping up more frequently.
"There was one out there recently about a child that belonged to a local police officer that was missing, which was a false story."
Forbes said police are able to pick these false claims out quickly, even if the case is coming out of another state, because they use the National Crime Information Center to report cases.
"Any department that puts out an NCIC, we're going to get. But, usually their investigators will call our people directly and we'll work very closely with them and do the best we can," he said.
However, for the general public without law enforcement connections, Forbes said spotting these scams may not be as hard as you think. "You'll see multiple postings from different people and the same picture in different states," Forbes said.
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, there are several red flags to look out for: the information is not coming from an official agency, the poster contains improperly used words or misspellings, and the post does not include identifying information about the child or a call to action.
There are also key components reliable missing posters will have: a child's name, the date they went missing, and the location they are missing from.
These tips are considered ways to self-verify if the police department has not yet released something. "They're pretty easy to pick out quickly if they're false," Forbes said.