Stories reveal a need for consistency

There is no single right way to respond to report of a missing adult.

Police, media and other institutions must take into account the facts of any particular case in order to determine the best course of action.

But we are troubled by the jarring difference in the way authorities and news organizations responded to two recent cases of students missing from Iowa universities.

Large-scale searches and publicity efforts may not be appropriate in every missing-persons case - thousands of people are reported missing each year in Iowa, including adults who purposefully leave their homes and loved ones behind.

But police, school and media outlets must make sure they're responding appropriately and consistently to reports of missing students.

They should do that by developing protocol for investigating and for enlisting the help of campus communities - protocol that doesn't sacrifice human safety because of jurisdiction or resources.

A recently published news story, a collaboration between The Gazette and the Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism, showed dramatically different university, police and media responses to the disappearances of Iowa State University student Jon Lacina and University of Iowa student Jacques Similhomme.

In Lacina's case: hundreds of people searching, news stories, alerts to the campus community and investigation by law enforcement. In contrast, Similhomme's father desperately sought for help finding his son, but received little.

Tom Rocklin, interim vice president of student services, told a reporter that UI officials chose not to notify the campus community about Similhomme's disappearance. UI Public Safety Director Chuck Green is quoted as saying that since the student lived off campus, it wasn't his case.

Compare that to Iowa State officials' response when Lacina was reported missing on Jan. 30. That school's public safety director enlisted the help of other law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and national missing-person clearinghouses, they issued news releases and social media updates to spread the word.

Most UI students and staff didn't even know Similhomme was missing until his body was found in the Cedar River, weeks after he'd last been seen.

Green said UI has no policy guiding administrators and public safety officials' decisions whether or not to notify the campus when students go missing - or governing its use of the emergency HawkAlert system at all. That should change.

A more aggressive, coordinated response may not have saved Similhomme's life, but it certainly would have saved his family some pain.

And a clear, consistent protocol for communicating and investigating reports of missing students would answer the nagging question: Why were these cases handled so differently?