B.C. police drop surnames in missing person alerts to avoid ‘negative lasting impact’

It could be a weekend teenage runaway. An elderly loved one, lost and disoriented. Or it could be the first indication of murder.The first call to a police department to report a missing person sets in motion a series of investigative and public actions to find them, then, once found, protect their identity from becoming part of a permanent public record, said Insp. Drew Robertson of the Saanich Police Department.The department that polices Greater Victoria’s largest municipality recently moved to exclude surnames from public alerts requesting help finding missing people, in a bid to avoid causing them future harm. In so doing, it joins a growing number of law enforcement agencies across Canada, and has drawn praise from British Columbia’s privacy commissioner.