About our mission and the conference of 2025:
It sounds cliché, but knowledge is power and sharing knowledge is strength. Working together and providing insights into processes and methods leads to greater collective strength, with which we work towards beautiful desired results.
This is essential in the field of ‘missing persons’ investigations, because our society is becoming so intertwined internationally. Mobility, digital connectivity and open borders bring great opportunities, but they also come with new complex challenges for police forces around the world. Missing persons cases are rarely bound by national borders. That is precisely why international cooperation is not an additional ambition but a fundamental precondition for us, the Dutch police and for me as National Coordinator for Missing Persons and President of the Police Expert Network on Missing Persons.
When a person goes missing, it covers more than mere procedures and systems. It is about human lives, about those left behind in uncertainty and about a society that counts on decisive action from all security services. Rapid and careful international signaling is of course essential. It expands the scope of research, strengthens the information position and makes it possible to act in a timely and coordinated manner, wherever a person is in the world. That is why we emphasize this again and again during the training courses of our colleagues.
Effective international cooperation requires clear policy frameworks, reliable exchange of information and well-designed signaling processes. At the same time, it requires a shared professional culture: a culture in which trust, mutual understanding and joint responsibility are central. Only when police forces recognize and use each other’s expertise, international signaling will reach its full potential.
Almost 10 years ago, the first pile was driven on Amsterdam soil for the establishment of a sustainable international platform for international cooperation between police forces within Europe in the field of missing persons, PEN-MP (Police Network on Missing Persons). More than 39 EU and non-EU countries are now members of this valuable network, which continuously implements projects that focus on strengthening cross-border cooperation and knowledge sharing in the investigation of missing persons.
On 10 and 11 December, PEN-MP convened its annual international conference in Amsterdam under the theme “Together we care, Together we identify.” Over 250 police, forensic and academic experts participated in knowledge-sharing sessions on DNA, fingerprints and dental identification. A parallel Trackathon, supported by OSINT specialists, generated concrete leads in eighteen out of forty-three submitted missing person cases.
PEN-MP President Izanne de Wit emphasized the human dimension of this work:
“Our work is not only about investigation and science. It is about restoring identity, dignity and humanity. About bringing people home to the place where they are loved, remembered and mourned.
Through international cooperation and the exchange of best practices, PEN-MP continues to strengthen its collective ability to act swiftly and effectively in missing person cases worldwide. “
My presidency of this network ends in 2027 after almost 4 years. We have worked hard together on a reliable stable network, we have set up and developed wonderful projects and have gained more insight as a result. By thinking and acting across borders, we not only increase our effectiveness, but also fulfil our social mission.
Working together internationally means taking responsibility – for each other, for our partners and above all for the people we are looking for. This joint effort makes the difference between searching and finding, between waiting and acting, between hope and perspective.