Bear Clan partners with Winnipeg police to help find missing people

The Bear Clan has launched a new initiative with Winnipeg police aiming to help make sure missing people are found safe.

The non-profit unveiled a new Facebook page Thursday designed to act as a one-stop shop for people whose loved ones are missing.

“This page will provide information required when filling a missing persons report with the police and how to contact us. It also provides a link to our web page … to file a report with us online,” explained Kevin Walker, interim director of the Bear Clan.

“We’re extremely excited to have these tools available to our community, which will provide a valuable resource for the city’s most vulnerable.”

1:58 Bear Clan food bank feeding hundreds of Winnipeggers in need daily

The Bear Clan already works with police on missing persons cases, helping to collect information and keeping an eye out for the missing while on their foot patrols, says Angela Klassen, who will head up the new initiative and is also the organization’s West Broadway co-ordinator.

Klassen said since Feb. 1 the Bear Clan has posted 95 missing person reports on their main Facebook page, and of those, she says members have been “instrumental” in helping to solve 45 cases.

She said the new website and social media presence will expand on those efforts, giving family members a place to circulate a photo and description of their missing loved lone, along with an incident number people can use when calling police with information.

She says the Bear Clan will also offer support to those worried about missing friends and family.

“For a lot of the family. It’s their spirit’s broken. Their hearts are broken. They’re, like, lost,” she said.

“And so when we take on a missing persons case, I get really involved a lot, a lot of times with the families, speaking to them several times a day.”

1:46 Breaking down when the Missing Person’s Unit issues a news release

Winnipeg police Sgt. Andrea Scott of the missing persons unit and the counter exploitation unit said those who have filed missing persons reports can also now choose to communicate directly with the Bear Clan, who will then relay information to police.

“We need to build that trust, and having Bear Clan out on the street, having those eyes, having that working relationship with the community, it’s what we’re working to, you know, foster those relationships,” she said.

“They are instrumental to the work that we do every day. And they are. The work they do is unbelievable.”

Scott said, on average, the Winnipeg police missing persons unit sees 7,000 cases a year.