Police dispatcher is praised after spotting vulnerable care home resident on CCTV

Inspector Deborah Garnett, of the Great Horton and Little Horton Neighbourhood Policing Team, said a missing man, believed to be in his 50s, was found on Saturday afternoon after he had been missing since 8.30am. She said the happy result had been down to a “good bit of teamwork” between police, CCTV operators, carers for the missing man and dispatcher John Lovell.

Police were growing increasingly concerned due to the man’s mental health issues and feared he might be at risk of harming himself.

After a former member of staff at the care home where the missing man lived recognised him in Church Bank in the city centre she sent a concerned text to workers there, Insp Garnett said.

The text led to resources being concentrated in that area, and CCTV being scoured. Mr Lovell – who has 16 years’ police service behind him – spotted the missing man on CCTV outside a nearby post office and he was taken back to the home.

Insp Garnett said: “If Mr Lovell hadn’t have stood up and said that’s him, we’d have still been looking for him and had hundreds of officers called out.

“You can never put a price on saving somebody’s life and preventing somebody from being harmed, but Mr Lovell’s observation skills on this occasion have not only got the gentleman back to a place of safety, where he needed to be, but saved hundreds of police hours, and that in turn has a cost, which has been saved for the taxpayer.”

Acting inspector for the response team at Bradford South, Richard Cummings, said: “We need people like John Lovell, it’s not just about police officers it is about everybody who makes up the policing team, and he is a very important part of that team.”

Mr Lovell, 62, who served with the Royal Air Force for 14 years before joining West Yorkshire Police, said: “The word I use is symbiotic. I rely on the officers out on the street – we couldn’t work without each other. We work as a team and it is good when it comes off together.”