Police unveil missing persons toolkit

Police reveal missing persons toolkit WATCH: Newly revealed missing persons toolkit focuses on Indigenous women and girls. Molly Frommer reports.

The Greater Sudbury Police Service has recently unveiled a missing persons toolkit and resource guide designed specifically for Indigenous women and girls.

The guide will be used to assist in police investigations as well as help affected families.

“It’s for family members and indigenous communities to know that we’re trying to do that little bit extra, because we know it’s needed,” said Constable Shannon Agowissa, Greater Sudbury Police Service.

The toolkit surfaced in the Greater Sudbury area when Police Chief Paul Pederson was introduced to it while attending a conference in Winnipeg. Pederson saw its benefits to other cities and decided to bring the concept home.

“Every community is different, and you want that, but our community has completely different resources, completely different partnerships and completely different structure. There are some similarities between a police investigation in Saskatoon and a police investigation in Ottawa, but there’s also complete differences with how were structured. And so having it built here in Sudbury, for people in Sudbury, in our area and territory, is so important,” explained Pederson.

Indigenous leaders say they are encouraged, but Ontario’s Regional Chief says there is still a long way to go in terms of having women feel safe and protected.

“I just read a report that 100% of First Nation people suffer from inter-generational trauma, and that’s one of the key issues of why our women sometimes end up in higher risk situations or are at higher risk to be in situations of violence, or to go missing. We need to go from where we are now to a place where our women are value,” said Ontario Regional Chief Roseanne Archibald.

Archibald says this is a national issue and that with this toolkit and resource guide, in the future, when an indigenous woman goes missing, it will be treated the same way as anyone else.