News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Two missing persons cases are currently ongoing in Putnam County, and when it comes to such cases, law enforcement officials say it’s a big undertaking.
Putnam County Sheriff Eddie Farris said key resources the utilize are law enforcement partnerships.
“We have people that’s assigned to the FBI,” Farris said. “We have people that’s assigned to the DEA, alcohol and tobacco marshals, TBI taskforces, so we have many resources that we use. ”
Farris said they utilize tools like background checks, cellphone records, credit card histories and many other things to try and find missing persons. He said they classify different cases based on who the individual is, whether they’re a child, a senior citizen, someone with a disability, or someone with a criminal background.
“If you’re a juvenile and you go missing, you’re considered missing immediately,” Farris said. He said that seniors who are missing and considered in danger will have a Silver Alert issued, while individuals with disabilities will have a CARE alert issued. He said when it comes to missing adults that don’t fall into any of these categories, the protocol becomes a little more relaxed.
“When I say that, I mean so [when] we have somebody call or come in and report an adult missing, the first thing we have to do is get a signed documentation,” Farris said. “We do a report, from either a family member or friend that also goes into NCIC, the FBI-run database. Then we start asking some questions and doing some background checks.”
Farris said that includes talking to the last person to see them, putting out a “BOLO” (Be On the Lookout) for that person with a description and vehicle description.
“We’re looking at all avenues at the point,” Farris said. “Then we’ll certainly start checking phone information, credit card information, bank information. We try to verify through those avenues we might find results from.”
While cases are classified differently depending on the person, Farris said they do their best to use all of their resources. He said law enforcement takes them seriously because one day it could affect them personally.
“Law enforcement is a calling, it’s not just job,” Farris said. “We feel their pain. We certainly know this could happen to one of our law enforcement brothers or sisters or someone in our community. ”
Farris said that while sometimes investigation information needs to remain within the investigative team, they do their best to communicate as much information that they can in their continuous efforts to find those lost.
