Family Liaison Officer

A Police Family Liaison Officer (FLO) is a role of an officer either of uniformed or plain-clothed Criminal Investigation Department (CID) role, although some companies and schools have FLO's the best known and most used are of the Police's. Every territorial police force has a pool of trained FLOs, FLOs who have passed their probationary period and have gained the national qualifications in detective work are then allowed to fulfill the role. The FLO is usually assigned to the family by the Senior Investigative Officer (SIO). FLOs are usually assigned any situation where a point of contact between the family and the police is deemed essential, such as a high profile murder investigation, or a case of a missing child. The Metropolitan Police Service has occasionally send FLOs to families who have lost relatives in terrorist attacks or major disasters. An FLO can also be used to gather intelligence on the behaviour of a member of a family where they are a suspect in the case.

FLOs need good communication skills as they are often the person who reports investigative advances in the case, and are a "shoulder to cry on" for the family. Most FLOs dress in civilian style clothes rather than police uniforms, so as to appear more sympathetic. Sometimes the FLOs will give a statement to the media if the family do not wish to.

Non-police FLOs

Some Private, fee-paying schools have FLOs, although the position differs from the one in the UK Police Service, but is still based...
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