GUARDIAN ME­DIA NEWS­ROOM

Amid grow­ing con­cerns over re­ports of miss­ing peo­ple, the Po­lice Ser­vice's Me­dia Am­bas­sador is as­sur­ing that au­thor­i­ties are work­ing to­wards ad­dress­ing the is­sue.

ASP (Ag) Ra­jesh Lal said there are plans aimed at im­prov­ing the ef­fec­tive­ness of in­ves­ti­ga­tions and in­creas­ing com­mu­ni­ty sup­port.

He told Guardian Me­dia the role of the pub­lic and stake­hold­ers was an im­por­tant part of the po­lice's ap­proach to deal­ing with miss­ing per­sons cas­es. 

He al­so re­spond­ed to ques­tions over the Po­lice Ser­vice's time­li­ness in di­vulging in­for­ma­tion.

“We do not wish to re­lease any in­for­ma­tion that could af­fect the safe­ty of those per­sons who may be in cus­tody,” he ex­plained.  “If we are to re­lease cer­tain in­for­ma­tion that we re­ceive, as we get them, the per­sons may harm those in­di­vid­u­als who are in cap­tiv­i­ty.”

The TTPS Me­dia Am­bas­sador al­so urged par­ents and guardians to con­tin­ue pay­ing close at­ten­tion to their chil­dren's where­abouts, par­tic­u­lar­ly over the va­ca­tion pe­ri­od.

“Where there are chil­dren who are leav­ing the home for one rea­son or an­oth­er, par­ents need to have a word with these chil­dren as well,” he said. 

ASP (Ag) Lall ex­plained:

“If they are un­der­age, and they go to a boyfriend or some­body else, and some­thing hap­pens to that child, a crim­i­nal of­fence is com­mit­ted.  Then, every­one [in the house] has to be part of that in­ves­ti­ga­tion.  And even if you don’t have time for your child, you will need to make that time there when state­ments are be­ing record­ed.”

The TTPS spokesman was a guest on to­day’s edi­tion of CNC3’s The Morn­ing Brew show.