How do the Police trace NoK?

[BorgQueen]

If there is a fatal accident/ sudden death?
Given that most people have security on their phones etc. and a lot of people have their fb locked down, that’s if they even have ID on them, I often dont.
It’s no longer a case of them going to someone’s house and finding a telephone numbers book by the phone.
I have an emergency contacts list in my phone that can be accessed by anyone but how many people think to set that up?
I can’t remember if GPs have NoK info on your records, although obviously they know who else is registered at your address.
Do they check Electoral rolls/ credit ref agencies to see if there’s a financial link with another person?
I woke up thinking about this for some unknown reason, wondering how they do it and how long it takes.

Your work normally have NOK registered. Car would be registered to an address.

DH died hundreds of miles from home. I believe I was traced because, although he wasn’t in his car at the time, it was nearby, so the police were able to link it to him and then find his address via an insurance database. I have no idea how I know that though so I apologise if it turns out not to be true and someone else posts to say that isn’t possible. I can’t remember if they knew he was married and my name or if the police just found out his address and came to the house. It’s obviously much easier if your next of kin lives at the same address as you. He was found at about 8am and the police came to my house at about 4pm.

They don’t use financial databases for basic stuff like NOK in the early stage but if everything else drew a blank, it’s possible…there are SO many police intelligence systems which will usually give a link… but yes they do start with the basics such as address books, and literally knocking on neighbour’s doors-neighbours can be a great source of this kind of information, amd even ‘they have a daughter who lives in X town’ is a great start…my neighbour could tell you who my NOK (if it wasn’t my dh) is and I could tell you theirs

I'm.not sure
But my estranged father in law died last summer ,my dh hadent seen.him in nearly 30 years but we has a knock on the door at 4am by the police to tell us ,his dad wouldn't have had our address

My Sister is ill and getting worse, she lives alone and only really has two visitors, a friend and me, I have a key to her flat but I only go 2/3 times a week and it’s not unusual for her to not answer her phone.
If something happened, I’m not sure there is anything there that links us, I hold her will and insurance/funeral plan details, her phone and tablet are password protected. It’s doubtful her neighbours would know my full name.
I’ll have to ask her if the HA have my details, other than going to the doctor or hospital, she never leaves her flat.

My GP surgery has NOK registered for all their patients, as does the hospital

My colleague was phoned by the Police trying to trace her neighbour’s next of kin. Another neighbour who was a Police officer had suggested she might know who is next of kin for the neighbour in hospital was! My colleague was only able to say he has cousins called X and Y who live in these villages. With just the first names and villages the Police traced their next of kin. However, the relatives live in the country and it might have been a case of just asking the local PC.

Would your sister be up for leaving some information in her flat somewhere in case of emergencies

Most people have some form of Id. First starting point is hospital records. If that shows none then it'll be a visit to the person's house. Very often a neighbour will have an idea where NOK live.

If that doesn't work we check the address for previous calls. Going through a call history sometimes gives you a trail of some kind, or has the NOK details. Recently I checked previous calls to a house. There was a call from the person. That gave me their mobile number. Checked the mobile number on the system and there was another call from it to a different address. Voters roll confirmed people with the same surname.

It can be incredibly simple or like a jigsaw. If all else fails then there's often a FB appeal but it's rare it gets to that.

In my experience, it is through the council, who hold NOK information for every tenant, and for anyone who uses council services, like carers, etc

I have DH's number on the lock screen of my phone as "ICE".

That's a pretty small percentage of the population. I cant imagine that's very effective.

The area I live in for instance has thousands of houses but you can literally count the number of council houses on one hand

using council carers is a very high proportion of the sudden death population

That's assuming the death is age related. Doesn't account for accidents, suicide, unexplained deaths of younger people all of which are a large proportion of police involved deaths

There is this

https://chippenhamlions.com/message-in-a-bottle/

"her phone and tablet are password protected. "

Won't take long to bypass - especially by the Police.

Am I right in thinking anyone with a passport has the option to give an emergency contact name/number? I'm sure we've done this.

Given that you visit her regularly you could apply common sense and leave your contact details at house. Also ICE can be set up on mobile phones as pp mentions.

edited to add, you can also pass your name and number to the neighbour

Does her phone have an emergency contact option.

Mine does and it can be accessed without the password, it gives my husband and MiL as contacts, lists out any health conditions/medications etc that I want to put on there

Unless it's an Apple gadget. Pretty sure there was a case where Police tried to get Apple to unlock a phone so they could obtain evidence and Apple refused.

I’m a psychiatric nurse. We have to do a fair amount of NOK tracing as the “nearest relative” has particular rights/responsibilities under the Mental Health Act. “Nearest relative” is really specifically defined in law (spouse, child, parent, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, uncle/aunt, nephew/niece-in that order) and can only be changed in court; it might also be different from the NOK that someone has chosen. This means that if someone has been sectioned, and they can’t tell us who their nearest relative is, it can take a fair amount of ringing round to figure out who needs to be contacted. Normally we start with the GP and work forward from there, but it can end up being a bit tricky, especially if the person someone lives with is their NOK but not their ‘nearest relative’.

If you go into settings on mobile phones there is a Safety and Emergency section where you can put emergency contacts that are viewable when the device is locked. You can also typically put key medical information like blood type, usual medications and your GP name on there.

Asking my Sister to do anything to help herself is a battle and if I put my details on the board in her kitchen / on the mantlepiece there’s a good chance they won’t be there when I return. I also won’t be giving my contact details to her drug addict neighbour.

Car reg
Card in wallet
Credit cards

My son is epileptic and he has a medical alert wrist band. It has my name and number should he be taken ill somewhere, and it also shows he has epilepsy.
My Mum lives alone and my details are on her fridge.

We have been proactive as you never know if there is any sort of emergency.