WARMINGTON: Police hope new missing persons rules will save lives
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MISSISSAUGA — No new rule would have saved Riya Rajkumar on her 11th birthday, but new legislation on missing persons announced Thursday would have sped things up in the search for her.
And who knows who will be saved next time.
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“When someone is missing, the minutes and hours matter,” said Peel Regional Police Chief Chris McCord.
The freshest case in Peel that comes to mind is the Valentine’s Day murder of the tiny girl by her father Roopesh Rajkumar, 41, who later died of a suspected self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“This would not have helped in that sad case but it could help in future cases like that,” said McCord.
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With parliamentary assistant to the Solicitor General MPP Christine Hogarth, McCord was responding to new legislation that came into effect last month that gives police more power in searching for missing people.
Seniors, children and fugitives.
“A missing person needs to be found and the quicker police can start on it, the better chance they will be found,” explained Hogarth.
Up until now, granting police warrants to access phone or banking records for missing people meant days of paperwork.
This new rule cuts through some of that red tape.
Cell phones leave trails for investigators to follow.
Same goes for banking or credit card records.
“Police will be able to access information in a more timely way,” said Hogarth, adding it’s something police felt they needed and what the public was looking for.
Riya’s case is an example, but this legislation was inspired by the case of Daniel Trask — whose mom Maureen fought for his legislation for years.
The 28-year-old disappeared into the northern Ontario bush near Temagami in 2011, and his body wasn’t found for three years.
His mom always felt that if police took an early look at his phone and bank records, perhaps there would have been a chance.
“We will still have to go to a judge for a warrant but it should only be a couple of hours (and not even days),” McCord explained.
In the case of Riya, police believe she was dead from the minute her dad took her into the apartment, but many officers would have liked to have broken that door down before any other search patterns began.
In the future, they won’t have that hindrance.
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