Would the cops be able to do find my lost iPhone?

I lost my iPhone at college. I have asked multiple friends to text the person who took it to give it back and that I will give them an award for returning it. But so far, it seems there's been no reply. I don't think I have the find my iPhone app on it though so its difficult to track it. So I put the phone on LOST mode. In lost mode, I'm only able to track the phone if the user connects to the internet.

I have tried tracking it over and over again during the first few hours it was lost. But it was offline. Then at 9:30, I finally it said that the phone's last location was a deli then at a gamestop store. I have not received any news about its location since then. The gamestop store seems to be closed by now.
Without the most updated location, would it just be useless to try to track the phone cuz the cops won't be able to find the updated location.

They should be able too. Assuming someone stole it, report it as such, and they should be able to track it if the GPS is on.

most college's have their own police department too, ask them for help since it's on their property that it happened.

the thief may have tried to sell it at a GameStop. Contact that location if anyone's turned in a phone for sale, and show proof of identity that it's your phone if they have it. Game Stop requires photo ID's when selling anything to their store, so they should have that info if it's the case of the thief, that they can use to turn into the police as well.

You need to file a police report also use track my iPhone feature if installed. Plus report it to Apple.

They won't even bother.

Source(s):
I'm a retired police officer. I retired as a sergeant, after 29 years, from a very large department, about 12,000 officers. I was a patrol officer for 4 years in a very diverse area. I was a tactical officer in the high rise project areas of my city. We called it vertical patrol in that we walked the the stairways of the high rises most of the time. I did that for 5 years and was promoted by test to detective. I worked violent crime (homicide, sex, officer involved shootings, robbery, kidnapping, serious non property incidents) for 11 years until I was promoted to sergeant. I worked as a street supervisor, a bicycle patrol supervisor and a desk sergeant/watch commander. During my time as a tactical officer and a detective I was a unit representative for the police union.
I have a B.A in English and an M.S. In Law Enforcement Administration.