A private legal practitioner has challenged the Ghana Police Service over its purported practice of forcing families to wait 24 hours before filing a missing person report, declaring that the rule has no legal foundation.
Speaking to Adom News, Lawyer Paul Kumi argued that when a person’s whereabouts become unknown under suspicious or distressing circumstances, relatives and concerned citizens have every right to report the matter immediately.
“There is no legal backing for a blanket 24-hour waiting period before the police can receive a missing-person report,” Kumi said.
He stressed that police personnel should not use this alleged requirement to delay investigations or turn away desperate families. He added that anyone reporting such cases must be promptly issued a police extract, which he described as vital for media broadcasts and public announcements that aid search and rescue efforts.
Anguish sparks debate
The controversy gained renewed public attention following a harrowing account from a distraught mother whose 14-year-old child went missing and was later found murdered the next morning.
Speaking to Adom News, she said that after exhausting all personal avenues to locate her child, she turned to the police, only to be turned away and told to return home until 24 hours had passed. She described a night of dashed hopes and agonising helplessness, knowing her child was in danger while official channels remained closed to her.
Procedures vs public safety
Offering a different perspective, security analyst Nana Appiah Mensah suggested the 24-hour directive might not be malicious but rather an administrative attempt by the Ghana Police Service to curb false or premature reports. That explanation has done little to calm public anxiety.
Members of the public have called for immediate reforms, clearer reporting procedures, and swift, uncompromising responses to missing-person cases. Civil society groups and legal experts are urging the Police Administration to clarify its official directives, insisting that public safety and the preservation of human life must always take precedence over bureaucratic protocol.
