MPP calls for Amber-style alerts for missing vulnerable people

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An Amber Alert-type response could save the lives of missing vulnerable people, an MPP says after an 18-year-old with autism went missing for more than two weeks near Havelock, Ont.

There’s a gap in the emergency alert system that needs to be addressed, said Monique Taylor, the MPP for Hamilton Mountain and the NDP’s critic for Children, Community, and Social Services. In December 2022 in her constituency, an 80-year-old woman with dementia who was not dressed for the weather was found dead after she had been reported missing.

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Taylor is behind Bill 74, now in legislative limbo, which proposes that cellphone alerts be issued to notify people in the area that there’s a search for a vulnerable person, such as someone with autism or dementia. The new alert would be another tool in the toolbox for police to use to locate missing vulnerable people, Taylor said. 

“There are so many situations where this could save lives.” 

Logan Tozer, 18, was last seen on his family’s farm near Havelock, about 230 kilometres west of Ottawa, on Oct 13. He was missing until he was found safe by Ontario Provincial Police officers on the morning of Oct 30 in an abandoned building that had been identified as one of his regular hideouts and had been searched regularly since his disappearance.

“The hardest thing is that I’m expecting the worst,” Tozer’s mother, Jenn Tozer, had said the day before her son was found. “I’m worried that he’s been taken, or he’s really hurt. Or he’s not coming home.”

Tozer has wandered before, often in the fall, his mother said. He was fixated on the woods and abandoned buildings, she said. On a previous occasion, he had been found reading in a trailer on the family’s 38-hectare property.

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The OPP were notified Tozer was missing the morning of Oct. 15 and deployed ground-search teams, a canine unit and aviation services to aid in the search, said Brooklyn Harker, the OPP Central Region media-relations co-ordinator.

In Ontario, the OPP has delegated authority from the Ministry of the Solicitor General to issue policing-related emergency alerts. But it does not have the authority to create new alert types or to issue alerts that fall outside the criteria of an Amber Alert, which may only be issued when a person under the age of 18 has been abducted.

Alert types and criteria are set by the Senior Officials Responsible for Emergency Management a federal/provincial/territorial group, in partnership with Public Safety Canada, Harker said. Provincial governments are responsible for issuing emergency alerts within their province.

But police often use other methods to alert the public, including posting on social media and issuing news releases to media.

Critics of alert systems say overusing alerts holds risks, including alienating the recipients of the alerts. But Taylor argues an alert is more effective than relying on traditional and social media to get the word out — and alerts would be used only on a local basis.

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“It has been really frustrating. We have been pushing for this,” said Kate Dudley-Logue, the Ottawa-based vice-president of community outreach with the Ontario Autism Coalition.

Dudley-Logue says she hears about a child with autism who has “eloped” at least once a month. A lot of people with autism have the need to wander and are quick to to figure out security systems designed to prevent them from leaving home, she said.

In June 2022, Draven Graham, 10, who had autism, drowned while visiting Lindsay, Ont. His body was recovered from the Scugog River almost 24 hours after he was reported missing.

In that case, police had alerted the public, but did not issue an Amber Alert because they are reserved for child-abduction cases. After Draven’s death, there were reports from people who had seen him. But they did not know he was a vulnerable person, including people who were fishing in the river, Dudley-Logue said.

More than 91,000 people have signed an online petition on change.org calling for a “Draven alert.”

Notifications to the media or posting missing people on social media are only useful if people are paying attention, Dudley-Logue said.

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“If you didn’t spend time online, you wouldn’t hear about it. But most people have a cellphone. It would give more of an opportunity to be found.”

If a person is missing, there is no reason not to call police immediately, Harker said.

“You do not need to wait 24 or 48 hours before reporting a person as missing. If you are not certain if a person has been reported as missing, we encourage everyone to call police anyway as they may have information that would help locate that person.”

The circumstance of each occurrence dictates the level and extent to which resources are assigned. When there’s a missing child or vulnerable adult, the missing person report is considered a priority and very urgent, she said.

There is no 24-hour waiting period to report a person missing, a spokesperson for the Ottawa Police Service said.

“Missing persons reports are considered high-risk investigations and are assessed upon the information received at the time.”

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