BUFFALO, N.Y. — National Missing Persons Day is observed on Feb. 3, a day dedicated to those who never received closure after reporting a loved one missing.

According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUS), 600,000 people are reported missing in the United States each year. While some remain missing, thousands are found and returned home thanks to training and technology.

The New York State Police respond to calls with a number of assets to use, including heat-sensing drones and scent-tracking bloodhounds, like Paris.

“She will work all day long if she needs to,” Trooper Frank Velletta, her handler, said. “Once that harness is on, she knows she’s working and it’s game time. She won’t stop.”

He said she is called into action in Western New York around 30 times a year, and the winter is a slower time of year.

In the air, Federal Aviation Administration-certified drone pilot Trooper Derek Marchiano said when the weather is fair they break out the drones.

“We want to get just above the tree lines and we also want to look for the wires and the telephone poles and things like that,” Marchiano said. “Those are very important.”

In some cases, one person is the pilot and another is monitoring the surroundings.

According to NamUS in Nov. 2022, there were 1,040 people missing in New York state.