Children's Champion

In the four years he has been with the Mitchells Plain Missing Person’s Unit, Inspector Charles Julies has solved all but one of the cases that have crossed his path. Today, clad in a tracksuit and running shoes, he looks more suited to a running track. But that’s just the thing, he says – his job isn’t an office one, but rather one which sees him interacting daily with the community whose children he calls ‘my priority’ and whose members recognise him as the man responsible for reuniting missing children (and adults) with their families.

‘I couldn’t begin to explain how I do it – I just make sure that I learn from every case and apply that to each new one,’ says Inspector Julies, who stood in for an absent colleague in the unit one day and never left. Now he heads it up. His most recent breakthrough was finding a missing newborn boy a month after the baby had been abducted from hospital. But pictures on his office walls of the children and adults he’s reunited with their families bear testament to his commitment to the job, which he says is 24/7. ‘I’ve made it my job to educate people, and to help look after the children of Mitchells Plain so that they’re not put in dangerous situations in the first place,’ he says.

The community outreach programmes he’s initiated are all examples of this. ‘I take groups of children to Dragon Boat racing training at the Waterfront, where they can make a commitment to something and use up their energy in a good way. If children know they have something productive to throw themselves into, there’s less chance of them getting into trouble,’ he says. ‘At the end of the day we’re all responsible for our community’s children – and I remind myself of that every day.’