The families of the three Camden boys who died in the boot of a car just yards away from their home whilst the police searched for them have been awarded over $2 million in settlement.

They claimed that the police did not follow set procedures when searching for the three boys.

The boys went missing on 20th June 2005 after playing in the family's backyard. A massive missing person search followed which included the use of 150 officers, search dogs, all terrain vehicles, mounted units and thermal imaging equipment.

They were found two days later, by a relative in full view of the TV cameras present, in the boot of an unused car in the yard where they were last seen.

An official report into the case lists some of the mistakes that were made;

The boys' relatives blundered in waiting three hours after noting the boys' absence to call police, a gap compounded by slow police response.

Conflicting statements that relatives and neighbors gave to police added to the confusion of a frantic search.

Camden police procedures for handling missing-person reports were third-rate. Those procedures did not distinguish between searching for adults and searching for children, whose vulnerability and weak judgment should influence tactics.

Those third-rate procedures were carried out sloppily, even as police desperately sought to find the children.

Officers checked out the car, which is owned by Anibal's grandmother and sat in the Cruzes' rear yard. But they never looked inside the trunk or searched through the car's interior, where they would have found the boys' shoes.

Supervisors failed to establish a stable chain of command during the early hours of the search. Nor did police cordon off the critical area where the boys last were seen so that a police dog could effectively follow the boys' scent.

Neither the police nor the Camden County Prosecutor's Office, which oversees the city police, has a list of emergency resources that the city lacks, such as K-9 units.