New legislation is being proposed in B.C. to protect vulnerable persons who go missing by improving access to information that may help find them.
The changes are tied to the recommendations from the Missing Women’s Inquiry.
Once the law comes into effect, police will have access to sweeping powers to help look for missing people in cases where there is no criminal investigation.
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For example, in a case that may involve kidnapping, police already have powers to search records and obtain search warrants to track down the missing person.
But if there is no crime — such as a missing sex trade worker, or another vulnerable person — police have been at a significant disadvantage up until now.
The Missing Persons Act will now set out exactly what qualifies as missing, and give police access to records that may help track them down.
According to the Attorney General, the legislation is broad, but if police want a search warrant, they would need to provide specific reasons to a judge outlining the risks.
The Attorney General says the changes are a large portion of former Justice Wally Oppal’s recommendations.
The government says they have every intent to fully implement all the changes.
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