Former police officer wins Innovation Award for new app
A former police officer, who turned personal grief and frontline experience into a potentially life-saving tool, has won the Innovation Award at this year’s Tees Business Awards.
Paul Cooper’s Misper app is revolutionising the way searches for missing people are coordinated – and is now attracting global attention.
Mr Cooper, from Wynyard, County Durham, has already created Pocket Sergeant, an award-winning app used by thousands of officers across the UK.
Now, his latest app Misper is gaining traction for how it helps improve searches for missing people. At the time the app was shortlisted for the award, it had 1,000 users but that figure has already grown to more than 2,500 users and has attracted interest from organisations in the US, Canada and Germany.
The name ‘Misper’ comes from police shorthand for ‘missing person’. The app was launched in 2024 and has already had an impact in policing, tech and mental health circles.
In fact, the importance of having such an app available to help find missing people was brought home to Mr Cooper during the awards ceremony held at Hardwick Hall last week.
“During dinner at the awards ceremony, my phone pinged with messages about a woman with Alzheimer’s who was missing,” says the father-of-one.
“The messages were from people who told me they had forwarded the Misper app to the searchers. I sent them specific pages for the family on where to look for missing women who have dementia. This helps narrow the search to find missing people quicker.
“This really brought home to me how important the app is. It was surreal to be at an event celebrating the app while behind the scenes, it was doing exactly the job it had been developed for.”
According to the charity, Missing People, which uses statistics from the National Crime Agency Report 2021/22, someone is reported missing every 90 seconds in the UK.
Almost 170,000 people are reported missing every year (97,000 adults and nearly 70,000 children). Of the missing adults, up to eight in ten have diagnosed or undiagnosed mental health issues, three in ten have a relationship breakdown, four in ten have dementia, one in 50 have financial problems and one in 50 were escaping violence.
Mr Cooper served with Cleveland Police and Lincolnshire Police between 2008 and 2016, working on countless missing person cases. Behind the uniform though, he was carrying personal grief too.
He has lost several friends to suicide and supported others through mental health crises. One case continues to weigh heavily on him. He personally took the suicidal brother of a friend to hospital for assessment – only for him to be released, detained again, and later take his own life.
“I still think about what I could have done differently. It’s more heartbreaking as I knew the family. That guilt stayed with me,” says Mr Cooper.
“Building Misper became a kind of outlet for that sadness. It won’t bring back the people we’ve lost, but it could help save someone struggling today. If it helps just one person, it’s worth it.”
Misper is built on his frontline experience – and the gaps he witnessed when it came to searching for vulnerable people. Despite police responding quickly, he saw how searches often lacked coordination and failed to prioritise key areas to look based on risk factors.
“It’s not about searching more, it’s about searching smarter,” said Mr Cooper.
“I’m currently in talks with dedicated search personnel to use the app as part of their training. They currently don’t have any apps to help them coordinate their searches.
“Due to the work we’ve done and the press attention the app has received, it’s clear that people are forming an understanding now on the correlation between mental health, gender and where they are more likely to be found.”
The app uses publicly available data and behavioural research to guide searches. For example, gender, age and mental health status can influence where a person is likely to be found.
“The data is powerful,” explained Mr Cooper. “Search strategies benefit greatly from understanding how gender can influence behaviour. Suicidal females are often found relatively close to where they were last seen, frequently near water. Males, on the other hand, are more commonly located in secluded, wooded areas. These patterns allow responders to make quicker, more informed decisions when every minute counts.”
Free to download via Google Play and the App Store, Misper includes features designed to assist both police and families in real-time to:
- Upload a photo and description of the missing person;
- Use search checklists and radius mapping;
- Coordinate search parties; and
- Integrate and log verified sightings.
The award was especially significant for Mr Cooper as it also marks the launch of his debut book, From Trauma to Triumph: The Pocket Sergeant Journey, which was released on April 7.
The memoir traces his journey from growing up with an abusive father and being placed in care after his mum died when he was seven, to becoming a police officer, to building two award-winning tech solutions from scratch.
“It’s my story, but it’s not just about me,” says Mr Cooper, who lives in Wynyard with his wife Linda and their 13-year-old son Chester.
“It’s about showing people that no matter where you start, there’s always hope.”
From Trauma to Triumph: The Pocket Sergeant Journey by Paul Cooper (Whitehall Publishing) is available in paperback and Kindle at https://amzn.eu/d/iHSCYth
Find out more about Misper at www.misperapp.co.uk