National Centre for Missing Persons & Unidentified Remains
Centre national pour les personnes disparus et restes non identifiés
Canadian Police Centre for Missing and Exploited
Children/Behavioural Science Branch
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National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre
Truth Verification
Behavioural Sciences Branch
National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified
Remains (NCMPUR)
• Strategic and Operational Support Services
– Program Research and Develop Unit supports all
program areas
NCMPUR
• 2010 Federal Budget - funding for development of national
centre (Missing Children Registry since 1988)
• Established in 2011: incorporates National Missing Children
Operations, National Missing Persons, Unidentified Remains
• 2018 – National Missing Person DNA Program
• Provides law enforcement, medical examiners, and chief
coroners with specialized investigative services in support of
missing persons and unidentified remains investigations
NCMPUR Mandate
• Provide specialized services to missing persons and
unidentified remains investigators (i.e.: national public
website – profiles and allows public to submit tips)
• Enhance effectiveness and intelligence building (i.e.:
MC/PUR police DB, enhanced comparative analysis)
• Develop training for police (i.e.: best practices in
investigations of MP/UR)
• Assist in investigative comparisons
Program Research and Development Unit
• To engage in operationally-relevant research to support
investigations; importance of academic partnerships
• Primary Objectives:
– Identify operationally-relevant research needs
– Evaluate programs, services and approaches
– Establish network of experts
– Disseminate knowledge to the local level
– Encourage youth engagement
NCMPUR Research Agenda
• Pockets of research across Canada and internationally
• Collaboration across law enforcement and/or academic
partners unknown
• Need for more research continually noted by police and
academics
• Assessment of current state of knowledge was required
Developing NCMPUR Research Agenda
• Extensive literature review (“environmental scan”) of current
state of Missing Persons research
• Canadian and international perspectives
• Focus areas of e-scan included:
(1) Definitions
(2) Prevalence
(3) Demographic trends and characteristics
(4) Strategies, techniques and issues in investigations
Objectives of the Environmental Scan
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Provide an overview of current state of research
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Identify areas of research that are/should be linked to
investigative practice
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Recognize opportunities wherein law enforcement and
subject matter expert collaboration would be beneficial
and possible
Research Gap: Missing Persons Study
• Canada: Samples that meet specific criteria (e.g., uncleared cases
only); Overuse of police data
• Globally: Large-scale studies focus mostly on youth; Limited number
of variables examined in studies involving adults (data availability)
- Obtain large sample of case files from agencies directly
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Code files: behaviour prior to missing, substance abuse, mental
health problems
Investigative Decision Support Guide
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Many Canadian police services use informal “risk assessment” –
unclear if based on empirical findings
- Structure and content of assessments vary per agency
- No Canadian research has systematically examined the risk of
different outcomes (e.g., death) on the basis of case information
- Focuses on “missing” group as a whole - Perhaps risk profiles differ
for different groups? Heterogeneity of sample could be hiding
important risk differences (youth vs. adults?)
Multi-Discipline, Multi-Agency Missing Person
Investigative Initiative
• Two sessions thus far
• Identification of Subject-matter experts: open call
• Objectives: (1) development of innovative, evidence-based
approaches or practices for missing persons and unidentified
remains (MP/UR) investigations; (2) support the
standardization of the investigative response to MP/UR
across Canada; and, (3) identify knowledge or expertise gaps
• Development of resource document
Canada’s Missing website
Tips
• Public able to print posters from the website which include
the contact options
• The NCMPUR manages the national email box
Ongoing Priorities
1) National Research Agenda
• Continually evaluate progress in MP/UR research
• Different focus areas as they emerge as priorities
2) Translating research into investigative practice
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Most effective method for disseminating research
3) Communication/Access – researchers, services, SMEs
• Facilitate ease with which research findings/techniques can be
identified, implication for practice assessed, and applied to policing
• Facilitate formation of useful and timely collaborations
Contact Information
Insp. Roland Gosselin, Officer in Charge, NCMPUR
[email protected]
Dr. Roberta Sinclair, Manager, PRDU
[email protected]