A city ordinance means a grandmother has been ordered to stop posting fliers about her missing 17-year-old granddaughter. It’s been almost a year since 17-year-old Paige Johnson went missing and her family is not giving up hope that she will be found.
Paiger Johnson
Paige’s grandmother, Jenny Roderick, has posters all over her car and has been putting them all over Covington, including on utility poles. But after a complaint, the city took action and asked her to take them down.
Roderick says putting up the posters help her hold onto hope her granddaughter will be found. “We miss Paige something fierce. And we want her home, you know, even if it is the other way. We still want her home and this is what keeps me going.”
The Covington City Manager says regardless of what the posters say, they have to come down. They can be posted in store windows or bulletin boards only.
Allowing access to bank, cellphone records alarms critics
The Alberta government has tabled new legislation to help police find missing people by accessing personal information.
The Missing Persons Act, or Bill 8, would allow police working on a missing-person case to search personal information -such as cellphone and financial records -even when there is no reason to suspect a crime has been committed.
The legislation requires police to apply for the personal information through the courts. When police believe there is a risk of harm or death, they can demand specific records needed to find the missing person.
The bill was introduced by George VanderBurg, MLA for WhitecourtSte. Anne, who said the legislation was primarily created in response to police requests, including a resolution by the Alberta Association Chiefs of Police in spring 2010.
VanderBurg said cases like that of Lyle and Marie McCann, the elderly St. Albert couple who disappeared last July under suspicious circumstances, provide additional impetus for the changes.
“In my constituency, it struck home,” said VanderBurg. “If there was any legislation lacking to make it easier, whether searching bank records or Visa records or phone records, it sure is a lot easier on family members.”
The proposed changes sparked concerns over privacy when mentioned in last week’s throne speech. Opposition MLA Laurie Blakeman said the legislation would give police too much power.
VanderBurg said all information collected by police must be kept separately from other police records and is not to be used for other purposes.
“The bottom line is that the privacy information people have looked at this legislation, they agree with it.”
According to Josh Stewart, a spokesman for Alberta Justice, Information and Privacy Commissioner Frank Work provided verbal feedback after reviewing a first draft of the bill. The ministry is waiting to receive written feedback from Work about the current draft.
A spokesman for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner declined to comment on the current draft until it can be reviewed.
Murray Stooke, deputy chief of the Calgary police, chairs the law amendments committee for the Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police that recommended the changes last spring.
Stooke said the bill will go a long way in helping police track down the 200 Albertans currently missing. Since proving a crime is difficult, police were unable to access telephone, bank, or even health records. The prospective legislation will “clarify the rules.”
“In many or most missing person situations, by definition, we don’t have information or evidence of crime,” Stooke said. “This now allows us to take reasonable steps that wouldn’t otherwise be available to us.”
Melanie Alix, whose son disappeared more than two years ago, said she understands some people may have concerns about the release of personal information, but she thinks the legislation’s potential benefits far outweigh any risks.
“I totally understand that this can be a very touchy subject, but I believe in certain cases the police should have access,” said Alix, whose son, Dylan Koshman, disappeared after a fight with his cousin on Oct. 11, 2008, and remains missing.
The father of missing York chef Claudia Lawrence has asked MPs for more legal rights for families of missing people.
Peter Lawrence, 63, was speaking at a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Runaway and Missing Children and Adults.
He said families currently have no way to deal with a missing person’s property and finances.
Group chairwoman MP Anne Coffey said a Parliamentary inquiry will be held into potential changes to legislation.
The meeting in the House of Commons was attended by MPs as well as representatives of the police, banking and legal sectors.
Families ‘in limbo’
Labour MP for Stockport Mrs Coffey said: “Mr Lawrence gave a very good account of what happens to families – apart from the emotional trauma of a relative going missing, they face a lot of legal and practical problems.
“For example, his daughter had a mortgage and it was difficult to get the mortgage company and bank to engage with him, the same with car insurance.
“We recognize we need to do something to support families in these situations.”
A Parliamentary inquiry will take place over the next couple of months, Ms Coffey said, with police and banking experts called to make recommendations about how the current obstacles families face can be overcome.
One option is to introduce a “guardian order” so a relative can take over a missing person’s finances.
Claudia disappeared nearly two years ago and a vigil was held on Sunday by the Archbishop of York to mark her 37th birthday.
Mr Lawrence said families are currently left “in limbo”, unable to prove a person was dead or alive.
‘Presumption of death’
Another option could be the introduction of a “presumption of death act” in England and Wales, which would allow families to resolve the financial affairs of a missing person.
Currently a person must be missing for at least seven years to be declared presumed dead.
The law change would allow anyone with an interest in a missing person’s affairs to apply to the high court for them to be presumed dead.
There would be no minimum time before they could apply, as long as they could show evidence to suggest the person had died.
Scotland already has a presumption of death act which was introduced in the 1970s.
Martin Houghton-Brown, chief executive of the charity Missing People, said: “If your house is burgled you are automatically offered emotional, practical and legal support.
SAN JOSE, Calif. — San Jose police are investigating the disappearance of a 46-year-old man reported missing last week when he failed to show up for work.
Virdell Green Jr. was last heard from on April 30 at 5:13 p.m. when he left his current girlfriend a voicemail message, police said.
His car, a black 2002 Jeep Liberty sports utility vehicle, along with his keys and personal items, was found around 8 p.m. at his ex-girlfriend’s house in San Jose, police said. Witnesses reported they didn’t see Green parking the Jeep, police said.
He kept in touch with his ex-girlfriend because they have a child, police said.
His employer reported him missing on Wednesday after Green missed work in Santa Cruz on May 3. Friends, co-workers and family members say it is uncharacteristic of Green to disappear without giving notification.
Green is a member of a local musical group, but on April 30 he did not show up for scheduled musical performance engagements and band rehearsal, police said.
He is described as a black man, 5 feet 7 inches to 5 feet 8 inches tall, 170 to 180 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. Green wears prescription glasses and is also know to wear earrings.
Anyone with information regarding Green’s whereabouts is asked to call the Police Department’s missing persons unit at (408) 277-4786 during business hours and (408) 277-8900 or 911 after hours. People who wish to remain anonymous can call the Crime Stoppers tip line at (408) 947-STOP (7687).
Little Falls, N.Y. – A child is reported missing every 40 seconds in the United States. That translates into over 2,100 children per day, in excess of 800,000 children each year. And according to the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, another 500,000 children go missing in this country without ever being reported.
It is a parent’s worst nightmare and it can become a community tragedy.
That is why the Little Falls Police Department is stepping up its efforts to bring people home safely by utilizing a high-tech tool that can reach 1,000 people a minute.
Called A Child is Missing, the rapid response telephone system alerts residents in a targeted area about a missing child, elderly person, college student and mentally challenged or disabled individual.
“It is a powerful tool,” said Chief of Police Michael Masi at Monday night’s Police and Fire Board meeting. He added that it is not uncommon for departments to receive calls of teenagers not returning home when they are supposed to be home. “Those calls are classified as missing persons until we determine where they are. With this system, we can wrap those cases up in minutes.”
Masi said that with a nursing home, retirement community and a considerable elderly population in the city of Little Falls, the system would not be put to use just for children.
“This system can be used for any case involving a missing person,” he said, adding that he attended a training seminar in Rome and that he was impressed with its effectiveness.
A Child is Missing can place 1,000 calls in sixty seconds, can process multiple cases simultaneously and can work without jurisdictional boundaries. Success stories abound, as 670 people have been successfully rescued since the Fort Lauderdale-based program began in 1997. The average recovery time in those safe recoveries has been 90 minutes from placing alert calls.
The program is at no cost to the department or to the public, as financial support comes from special events, sponsorship, private and corporate donations and state and federal funding. Appropriations from each state are used to maintain the program in that state.
Officer Shane Riolo said that when a person goes missing, his department will call A Child is Missing with a description of the missing person and where they were last seen. Within 15 minutes, people who live in the area will be notified by telephone through an automated telephone message system.
“When we receive a missing person call now, we hit the streets and knock on doors, but that is a few officers searching in a relatively small area,” said Riolo. “By utilizing this system, we can blanket a much larger portion of the community within minutes. It is a really effective system.”
Riolo said the automated voice will give the resident a description of the missing person, explain where he or she was last seen, what he or she was wearing and what car he or she was driving in. The pre-recorded message asks residents to help police by walking outside and looking for the individual.
“It’s as quick and easy as that,” said Riolo. “And if the missing person is seen in another area of the community, a second wave of messages can be sent out specifically targeting homes in that area.”
The system will only call public phone numbers. Individuals who only have a cell phone or who have a home phone number that is private are asked to sign up online at www.achildismissing.org and register their number, so they, too, can receive the emergency alert.
Riolo said individuals will only be contacted in the event of an emergency.
