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The science and technology of police searches

An inside look at what happens when someone goes missing
Deputy Andrew Fletcher 3
"There's a real science to it," said South Simcoe Police Chief Designate Andrew Fletcher of police searches for missing people. South Simcoe Police photo

Ground searches are the most visible component when someone goes missing but technology now steps in to play a big role. 

"There's all sorts of tools at our fingertips and there's a real science to it," said South Simcoe Police Chief Designate Andrew Fletcher.  "It's not just as random as, okay where were they last seen, let's go and start searching around."

Police are not searching for a person, says Fletcher but for clues to a person's whereabouts. 

In the early stages, technology can provide important focus. 

An electronic trail could be security cameras on businesses or homes, tracking people via cell phones, GPS, and credit cards.

"If they were last known to use a credit card at a gas station then that gives us a starting point," explains Fletcher.  "And then we can go use the video from the gas station and say okay they were here and they were by themselves and this is what they were dressed in and that sort of thing."

Depending on the scope of the search, South Simcoe Police would immediately roll out front line staff, auxiliary officers and any other resource staff.

Then they start looking at other technological tools. 

There's the Barrie Police Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (drone) and helicopters from York Regional Police and the OPP.

South Simcoe Police has Canine Units and snowmobiles.

Weather, time of day and health issues are factors that weigh into urgency and can accelerate resources quickly. 

Officers have hand held search devices similar to binoculars that can seek out infrared images.

The UAV also has that technology to identify heat sources.    

"In a wooded area there might be an animal, so we would go and search and find out oh it's animal or it could be a person curled up and sitting at the base of a tree," explains Fletcher. 

All the data collected is recorded and mapped on computer with the use of specialized software. 

"We send out our search people with a GPS device attached to them so we know what grid they searched and we come back and overlay that," explains Fletcher.  "So again, from the science of it, we don't want to just keep going over the same area over and over again.  We want to say okay we've covered that area. We need to go and focus on the other area and we can look at where the heat sources are based on the UAV and other things."

In addition to technology there is also a science behind searching. 

Fletcher says police tap into studies done by search masters around the world who examined data surrounding missing people and identify common traits of certain groups.

"Do they always walk in a certain direction?  Will they curl up somewhere?  Will they stop or will they just continue walking?  Knowing at what speed people walk at. Again when you look at the age factor.  How fast can the average person walk so we know when we're two and three hours into the notification, that person can already have an advanced time slot on us so we would expand our search.  So it's not as simple as saying okay they were last seen here, now they've got two or three hours of walking time ahead of us so our perimeter for our search has to widen."

Fletcher urges people to take advantage of the service's new Vulnerable Persons Registry, which is initially targeting seniors but can encompass certain children or young adults.

"It's really a tool to provide our officers with the information they need. Characteristics, attributes of people that go missing in advance of them going missing. Whether it's contact information for other loved ones, physical descriptors, photographs -  it's a tool to allow our officers so that when they begin a search for a missing person they're not trying to gather that stuff at the time."

The service is teaming up with the experts at Georgian Bay Volunteer Search and Rescue to bolster their search manpower and Community Home Assistance to Seniors (CHATS) to promote the Vulnerable Persons Registry. 

Social media also now plays a huge role when police can put out photos and descriptions of missing people and expand the numbers of searching eyes tenfold in an instant. 

 


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Sue Sgambati

About the Author: Sue Sgambati

Sue has had a 30-year career in journalism working for print, radio and TV. She is a proud member of the Barrie community.
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