Before I go on this rant about the elderly McCann couple that vanished in Alberta; I need to say that I, genuinely, support the RCMP as far as individual officers are concerned. The upper management, however, leaves something to be desired when I look at some of the policy that appears to be in place when you read various news stories and also pick up the odd snippet from a member him/herself.
In a nutshell, here's what happened:
78-year-old Lyle McCann and his 77-year-old wife, Marie, left on vacation in their motorhome from their house in St. Albert on July 3rd and haven't been seen since. It turns out the motorhome barely made it out of the region. It was spotted two days later at the Minnow Lake campground near Edson, about a two hour drive west of Edmonton, with the SUV still attached. The motorhome was found ablaze later that day in remote bush near the campground. Fire crews doused the blaze and the SUV was gone. No bodies inside, but police found the registration linking the vehicle to the McCanns.
According to a story in the Toronto Star yesterday, police phoned the McCann home and also knocked on their door, but found nobody home. Authorities didn't start actively looking for them until five days later once the McCann's daughter reported they didn't show up in Abbotsford for a camping trip. Sgt. Patrick Webb, the RCMP lead spokesman on the case, apparently told a news conference earlier this week that the case didn't immediately set off alarm bells because vehicles are often found burning in the bush and it's not unusual for people to be away from home during the summer season. Now, I'm not an investigator, but I question how often is it that an elderly couple's motorhome would be found burning in the bush, especially when you consider this elderly couple is likely void of a criminal record. To me, that's a senior officer trying to brush off the media and if nobody in attendance pressed the Sgt. on this comment, then the media gets as much shame here as the senior member. Also, I know we live in Sasktchewan but life here is not that much different than Alberta and I would question how often is 'often' when it comes to burning vehicles in the bush? Can anyone reading this explain to me when the last time was you heard of a motorhome on fire in the woods?
The other thing that irks me, and I ran into this in Yorkton (not the present management team) when I worked at the radio station is that police will sometimes issue information for the general public and the details are either so sketchy nobody could possibly help or else the information is an outright lie. In this case, the mounties said they issued an alert urging people to report any sightings of the motorhome, even though they already knew it was sitting burned in a field. Webb initially attributed that to a communication breakdown, but then said it was done deliberately to protect the integrity of the investigation. The RCMP members I know really dislike investigating false claims and anyone who subsequently phones a tip in that says, "Hey, I think I see that motorhome on the highway in front of me," is wasting valuable time. A) they don't really see it and B) having a police official even take that call is counter productive. It's like the boy who cried wolf. Is there a missing motorhome or not? Because as a citizen I'm very busy and I'm not putting myself into the middle of an investigation if you really don't need me to spot a missing vehicle.
What they should have done was issue an alert on the missing SUV, which I guess they did do eventually. However, the RCMP in Prince George got a tip about this SUV and never bothered to even ask the individual's name who submitted the tip. It turns out the couple that reported seeing the SUV were bang-on. They recorded the license plate digit/letter by digit/letter. But, the person who took the information never took down the tipster's name and number and now police are not only looking for a missing couple and their SUV, but also for the couple that provided this, possibly, very valuable tip. This blunder is blamed on the fact RCMP detachments don't share information with one another very well. Well, that's not our (general public) problem.
The RCMP needs to be more trustworthy when it comes to sharing information and I think they need to use the general public as a more valuable resource. Most of us, who are law abiding citizens, are sick and tired of crime and if we can help authorities reduce it, we will. Do you think a potential criminal has a better chance of escaping if police are looking for him without the help of the general public? Of course he does and in this day and age of the internet, the general public all across the country can be looking for someone really quick. The bottom line is that people making the decisions at the RCMP feel issuing information for the public hinders their investigation and they'll only inform us as a last resort. This needs to change.
Furthermore, the higher ups at the RCMP throw their own people under the bus when they say the force is dealing with massive retirements and there are a lot of rookies handling tough cases. This was floated out there by Bill Pitt, a retired Mountie and currend Edmonton based criminologist. That's not fair. I've met quite a few young officers who are extremely capable of doing their job.
No comments:
Post a Comment