When most people think about locating a missing person, they picture police investigations, Amber Alerts, and search parties. But here’s what catches people off guard: the vast majority of situations where someone needs to find another person don’t qualify for police assistance at all. This isn’t a failure of the system. It’s how the system is designed.
We were recently featured in publications such as Delaware Online and Des Moines Register, for our insight on how private investigators can step in to help when a missing-person case is not a police matter.
The Gap Nobody Talks About
Between 70,000 and 80,000 Canadians are reported missing to police every year. That sounds like a massive number until you realize it only captures cases involving endangered individuals or suspicious disappearances. What about everyone else who needs to locate someone?
The lawyer who needs to serve papers to a defendant who moved across the country. The executor trying to find a beneficiary who hasn’t been heard from in fifteen years. The adult adoptee searching for a birth parent. The person trying to reconnect with a high school friend before their reunion. The business owner looking for a former partner who disappeared with company equipment.
None of these situations involve police. But the people still need to be found.
This is the invisible category of locate-person work that private investigators handle every day, and most people don’t even know it exists until they need it.
Why Police Won’t Help (And Why That’s Actually Reasonable)
Police resources are limited and need to be focused on cases involving immediate danger. When someone is endangered, when foul play is suspected, when a child goes missing, police mobilize quickly and appropriately.
But when you need to locate someone for legal service, estate matters, personal reconnection, or business purposes, you’re not reporting a crime. You’re not reporting someone in danger. You’re reporting a civil or personal matter that falls completely outside police jurisdiction.
This creates confusion. People assume “missing person” equals “police matter,” so they’re surprised when police can’t help them find Uncle Joe who moved to British Columbia in 1998 and is now a beneficiary in their grandmother’s estate.
The reality is that police handle about 4,300 missing persons cases in Toronto each year, and 72% are resolved within a week. These are active investigations involving people whose safety is genuinely in question. Everything else requires a different approach.
Who Actually Needs Locate-Person Services
The requests private investigators receive fall into surprisingly consistent categories.
Legal professionals need people located constantly. Witnesses who moved since a case was filed. Defendants avoiding service. Heirs to estates who lost touch with the deceased decades ago. Class action participants who need to be notified. None of these situations are police matters, but they’re all legally necessary.
Estate executors have a legal obligation to locate all beneficiaries named in a will. Sometimes that means finding someone who moved to another country, changed their name, or simply lost contact with the family twenty years ago. Without professional help, estates can be held up for years.
Adoption seekers navigate sealed records, outdated information, and legal complexities that require specialized investigative skills. Birth parents and adopted children searching for each other often hit dead ends with online searches and need professional assistance to navigate privacy laws while finding the people they’re looking for.
Personal reconnections might sound less urgent, but they matter deeply to the people involved. Finding a former mentor who changed your life. Locating an old friend before a milestone reunion. Reconnecting with someone from your past who you lost touch with during a difficult period. These aren’t frivolous requests. They’re about human connection.
Business matters require locating former employees, disappeared partners, or people with contractual obligations. When someone walks away from a business arrangement or takes equipment or intellectual property with them, you can’t call the police unless you can prove theft. But you still need to find them.
Creditors and financial institutions need skip-tracing services to locate people who moved without forwarding addresses. Again, not a police matter, but a legitimate business need.
The Ethics Matter More Than You’d Think
Here’s something most people don’t realize: legitimate private investigators screen every request before accepting it. We’re not being nosy. We’re protecting people.
If someone wants to locate an ex-partner who has a restraining order against them, that’s an automatic refusal. If the situation raises any red flags for stalking, harassment, or potential harm, the case gets declined.
We’ve turned down business because something didn’t add up. Because someone was evasive about why they needed the information. Because the request crossed from “locate this person” into “give me their daily schedule and home address” territory that felt invasive.
Legal service and estate matters are straightforward. Adoption reunions follow clear ethical guidelines. But when someone just wants to find a person with no clear legitimate reason, or when their story changes, or when they seem to want information for controlling or harmful purposes, ethical investigators refuse the work.
Not every locate-person request is innocent, and responsible investigators know how to spot the difference.
What Happens When Someone Doesn’t Want to Be Found
This is the complicated part. Private investigators can find almost anyone with enough time and resources. But what happens after we locate them depends entirely on why someone is looking and whether the person wants contact.
If a lawyer needs to serve legal papers, that’s straightforward. The person has a legal obligation to receive service, and we facilitate that.
If someone is looking for a former romantic partner who clearly doesn’t want contact, we’re extremely careful about whether and how any information gets shared. Sometimes we confirm someone is alive and provide general location information without facilitating direct unwanted contact.
The goal isn’t always reunion. Sometimes it’s verification. Sometimes it’s closure. Sometimes it’s just confirming someone is safe and well, even if they’ve chosen to remain out of touch.
Why Professional Verification Matters
Anyone can Google a name or search Facebook. What private investigators provide is verification.
When you find someone online, how do you know it’s the right person? How do you know they actually live at that address currently? How do you know the information is accurate and not outdated or confused with someone who has the same name?
For legal purposes, you need documented proof that holds up in court. For estate matters, you need verified identity confirmation. For adoption searches, you need information gathered legally and ethically through proper channels.
Professional locate-person work isn’t just about finding an address. It’s about providing legally sound, verifiable documentation that the right person has been located at the right place.
When You Should Consider Professional Help
Most people start with Google and social media. That makes sense. It’s free and sometimes it works.
But when online searches fail, when you need legal documentation, when significant time has passed, when international borders are involved, or when sealed records or complex family histories are part of the picture, that’s when professional services become necessary.
If the person you’re looking for has reasons to avoid being found, if they’ve deliberately disappeared, if they’ve changed their name, or if they’re simply living somewhere without much digital footprint, amateur searches hit walls fast.
Understanding when police can help and when private investigators are the appropriate resource saves time, frustration, and sometimes money. Both serve important but fundamentally different functions, and knowing which one your situation requires makes all the difference.
Featured Episode
Mitchell Dubros explains when private investigators step in for locate-person cases and how ethical screening protects people from potential harm.
The bottom line: If you need someone located and it’s not an emergency or criminal matter, police can’t help you. But that doesn’t mean you’re out of options. It just means you need a different kind of professional.
To learn more, contact Investigation Hotline at
