Morbid question I know, but…How do the police know whose door to knock on if something happens to you?

[Hermanfromguesswho]

Inspired by another thread asking what people would assume if police officers knocked on your door and the overwhelming response was to worry that something had happened to a loved one.
Anyone who works in the police…how do you know who is next of kin/emergency contact?
I, for example, am a single parent of teenagers. I live alone with them.
Their Dad lives a couple of hours away. I have parents and siblings, who I am in close contact with but they all live at least 3 hours away and although they know what I do, they don’t know the name of where I work. They know my friends names but don’t have their contact details.
My whole support system here is a couple of very close friends (one is my children’s godparent) and my ex parent in laws (who live locally)
Morbid thought but I worry if I had a serious car accident and was badly injured or killed, how would my children find out? Is there somewhere I can register my friend and in laws as my official emergency contacts as they would be best placed to be with my children, care for them and inform the children’s Dad and my work etc.
I wouldn’t want someone knocking on my Mums door 3 hours away who would be lost and not know how to deal with it all!!

You could keep an in case of emergency card in your purse or in your phone set up the emergency contact info?

I’ve wondered this. I live in quite a small community so there’s a good chance some would recognise my car or me if something happened. And they’d do a search on number plate.

Next of kin from NHS system?

I would think, car reg or search belongings for identity
Someone on Mm will know, and fill us in, I should think 🙂

Put someone as an ICE (In Case of Emergency) in your phone, carry a card in your wallet and put something on your fridge with the details of who should be contacted in and emergency and the fact you care for 3 kids.

Dh is registered as my ICE contact in my phone.

Yes - who is saved as your ICE contact in your phone?

I have an emergency contact number (DD) displayed on my lock screen
Works if I lose my phone or get run over by proverbial bus
Although I suppose not if the phone gets run over by the bus as well 🤔

My wife is registered as her name then ICE in my phone. For in case of emergency.

when my (single) aunt was in a serious car accident the police turned up at my old house. The homeowner gave my new address and they came round to inform me of the accident. My aunt had 2 children but for some reason they weren’t contacted.
the only thing I can think of as to why we were contacted rather than her children is we have the same surname and my car was stolen a few years ago. They must have ran the surname through their data base and decided to take a chance that we were related.

The police have their ways?! I remember once this police officer was looking for me and he called up my workplace. I asked him how he knew where I worked and he said from the company website. Which I'm not on?!

I know they used to go through people's phones looking for contacts that say mum or dad. But I guess that's not as easy now phones are always locked.

If you have an iPhone put your friend as emergency contact.

If your phone is found the medical info can still be accessed even if you have password protection.

Plus as pps said, a note with your name and contact details kept in your glove box, handbags, purse

I’ve just updated my phone medical info and emergency contact information so that was really helpful to find out about!
I just wouldn’t want my number plate to link back to my address and my young teens (with additional needs) to answer the door to bad news. I’d like one of my nominated contacts to get that call and to be there to support my children.
Hopefully my phone ICE contacts will help with that 😬

I'm a police officer. I've never gone through a phone for an ICE contact and don't know anyone who has, we wouldn't have the PIN/ etc and likely in an emergency situation wouldn't have the time to do phone work to crack it, so seems a bit pointless.
In your situation we'd run the VRM/insurance details and work from there. We have loads of systems, PNC, voters register, etc, but in the first would likely just go to the address the car is registered at.
I had to give a death message for someone's son who had died on a lads holiday in Greece and found her through Interpol checks.

Where is your car registered and what do you put on your insurance details if not your own address??

DD best friend was killed in an RTA this year and the police knocked her parents door in the early hours to deliver the worst news any parent could receive. She was a pedestrian and another friend was also hit, the one friend survived and was able to tell the emergency services where her friend lived. She was also carrying her drivers licence in her bag. I have my DC and DM as my ICE in my phone just in case but I wonder how would they get into my phone plus none of them live with me so they could not knock my front door and find them they would have to tell them over the phone.

Thank you for this. What would you do in the case of mine where at my address would be teens (old enough to be home alone but still under 28)? Would you then tell them directly?

If it's car insurance details then my DH would be at home or contactable that way.
Otherwise I'm on my work website and they have my NoK details.

Absolutely my insurance has my own address on. I am the only adult living in my house though. That’s the problem

It can be tricky. DH’s parents went away and his grandma went into a care home for respite care while they were away. FIL gave the care home an old work email of DH’s because it was the first that came up. GMIL died in the care home while they were away.

We have an unusual surname and we’re both solicitors so can be found on the law society database - DH is the only person with his name. It still took the police 4 days to find him and tell him about his grandma. He actually picked up a message from Linked In in the end.

Interesting. My DC live around 200 miles away from me and my DM around 50. Neither of my DC are registered to vote from my address - one at Uni and one living in the SE. My DD would know something had happened to me by lunchtime as we always always text every morning, DS wouldn't know for days 😂

Above post is a typo. Kids are under 18, not 28!

Things like vehicle reg, things the person is carrying, drivers licence, phone, bank cards etc and then various record checks to confirm. If there is absolutely nothing to go on in the case of a death then sometimes fingerprints or checking descriptions of people who have been reported missing. Word of something happening also gets around locally and close people will call in.

ICE information (at least on iPhone but I presume also android phones) can be accessed from the locked screen if set up properly. If you press the top right button for over a set number of seconds it comes up as an option with turn phone off and the emergency thing. I'm a bit worried police officers don't know this. Most medical personal should have been taught.

My ICE contact is available when the phone isn't turned on, I thought that was the point of it?