I heard over the news, about the 10 year old child (I think it’s a girl) found dead in the bushes somewhere in KL. She (assuming I’m right) was brutally murdered, most probably 2 days before. When I say brutally murdered, I wasn’t joking. She was literally butchered.
I leave the details of this news to the press, since I don’t have the full story myself. But what bothers me is, given the efficiency of crime-solving by PDRM, how effective they are in finding a person, missing or otherwise?
I mean, most of those in the missing persons’ column in the press are sent in by the relative themselves. Only those high-profile cases seems to have direct assistance from the Police in this matter. Others, usually ends up in a file, for Police use only. If they got lucky, the patrolmen would recognize the victim when they chance upon him/her. Worse, they use the report to identify the corpse they found.
I’m not saying that our Police force are incompetent. Far from it. I’m just saying there should be more that we, or with assistance with the police, could do. For instance, a daily sidebar in the papers with 5 reported missing persons, chosen randomly or upon request. Or, during the 999 show on TV3, a similar segment, showing the image and name of the missing persons.
At least, the victim have better chance being spotted by public.
What we have right now, is the relative themselves had to call the press to have an article of their missing persons printed. I don’t know if there’s any payment needed for that, though, unless if it’s for the advertorial/announcement segment.
An alternative and cheaper means of spreading the word is by posting fliers, and for a wider audience, the Net. I believe that the fliers work better in sending the message, if someone would actually come up and read it, especially if there’s a reward offered. Message sent via the Net reaches broader audience, but more often than not, it reaches the Spam folder or deleted before the messages have time to be encoded by our brain.
There should be a better way for the victim’s relative to assist the Police in the search party. It should be easily accessible too, both by the relative (they had gone through enough, missing someone they love) and the audience.
I could only think of the papers, since readers have more time to read and view the victim’s photo, rather than the short and expensive airtime in the TV. At least, a flier slipped in the papers could do the trick too. I’m open for ideas, guys.
Comments
4 responses to “Missing Persons”
My thoughts :
Make use of the related organization website to display the said pictures.
This way, it wont cost as much as displaying the pictures on television or on paper, taking up precious air time and advertorial space from that organization published products.
What i meant with organization are those that can help with examples like NST.com.my, TV3 websites, or etc.
Now that we have those org. to participate in setting up their website to show the section, link it to a centralize website. This website/websystem will be the hub to handle the information overflow on various cases that is reported by the public.
Sure2… you’ll say that whats the deal with setting up another org to handle the cases… its like setting up another red-tape, adding more bureaucracy level to the current system…
BUT..
Lets get realistic here. You cant expect the Police to handle what,.. 10-20 cases per month of missing person. They are already overburden with various other cases that may have a lot clearer lead and clues, instead of chasing in the dark for a missing person who may not be missing in the first place. Heck, they could be hiding in the first place (hiding and missing are not the same), for whatever reason or from whom, is not ours to judge.
Now that we have a database of information, its time to draft the information flow. Of course its no-brainer to setup a website accessible to the public for easy search.
Then, we’ll need to setup a mobile kiosk or unit that is attached to police car or traffic unit. These unit will have:
1)ability to take pictures
2)cross reference to the picture inside the missing person database for easy data retrieval
3)ability to enter or update information inside the missing person db.
This way, while doing their normal police beat duty, if in any situation they found the missing person or anyone that looks like them, all the officer have to do is:
1) snap a picture of the person face
2) Scan their IC number to the mobile unit.
3) Enter various details on that person
and the system will automatically cross-reference the data to that of the missing person and display the data that the person standing in front of the officer is reported missing.
The technology to implement this actually exist.
1) We already have a police car that is connected to a central reporting system so that they can receive complain faster. All that we need is to integrate the same unit to also cross-reference the database of missing person.
2) You can contact my friend at Extol on their quantum calculation powered search engine that lets user match faces to a picture of faces in a database.
So there you go. Now all we need is around maybe 3 million to implement that system… wait make it 10 million just in case we need to ahem2 any politician to actually support this idea for implementation… not that hard is it?
with a comment this long, you should start your own blog, bro.
okay, from my standpoint, although your ideas IS feasible, but it’s not that efficient in it’s current reach. I mean, even with a website such as Utusan.com.my or thestar.com.my, a section for the missing person may go unnoticed.
Nobody goes to jobstreet.com if they’re not looking for a job/candidate.
I believe the most effective and those that has the widest reach are the low-tech ones. but the cost of these means are too high for some, and that’s where the power of PDRM comes into place.
In fact, the most high tech widespread solution maybe an MMS information distribution amongst Rakan Cop members. I can’t be too sure, but most probably it costs less than spreading flyers, or even setting up a website, given the high rate of accessibility
Are sure we want to encourage mass spamming to personal inbox and handphones of missing person list?
Its too invasive for me, but nevertheless they might have a far reaching audience that way. Restricting it to only rakan cop member is a way to start.
I’m not saying we should put one more section inside the Utusan.com for missing person, just the link. Maybe a small widget at the corner that slideshow all the picture ever 1 second? then when you click it, it will reroute you to the details in a centralized website, with option to update the information, just in case you know that person.
No blog for me. Too lazy.. to type.
Currently boss is in USA, hence my long reply for last 2 days.
kaz :lucky you, since you have all the privilege in the world in your office, unlike mine which had just blocked ALL .blogspot.com pages, so imagine the reduction in my daily read.
Spamming is when you don’t agree to receive something but receives it nevertheless, so they should be able to discontinue the sms subscription if they want to, at little or no charge.
For spreading news regarding the Police, I think this is the way to go, since Blogs and websites are displayed in bad light by more and more ministers, including one who in recent case relates blogs to the opposition.
Politicians….bah! *raspberry*