Why Missing Children May Never Be Found....

....unless they're teen runaways because the police have proven to be effective in "rescuing" them,
or they're found by good samaritans which has always been the case...

For as long as top police officers or/and deputy ministers themselves keep saying the same things without showing any real understanding or progress on the issue i.e. NUR (National Urgent response) Alert, we might as well bury this early warning system, for good.

Federal Criminal Investigation Department director Datuk Seri Bakri Zinin:

"We know there are flaws. But what is important is that the system exists and is ready to be used. It is a matter of execution.

We have teething problems, but we are working on them to minimize errors.

Many do not understand this. It is not as easy as that (to activate the alert). We do not just use NUR Alert in every case as there are many factors to be considered, among them, legal implications and the risks involved if information is published without a proper investigation."

I totally agree that we have a system in place and a good one, adopted from AMBER Alert which was launched in 1996. We've adapted it to our needs and tweak it to suit our purposes. And remember this is the age of technology, so we should consider ourselves lucky...

Teething problems...what can they possibly be? The police took charge of it in January 2011. Whatever they are, do sort them out quickly.

Anyway, as for not using NUR Alert in every case -- we know that. WE DO UNDERSTAND. A missing child has got to satisfy some criteria, among which are that he or she is below 12, not a subject of domestic dispute, not a subject of a custody battle and not a victim of kidnap for ransom.

As for legal implications? I don't understand this. I don't get this.
And the risks involved if information is published without proper investigation? What kind of risks?

When your child goes missing, what do you do? You would go to the police, right? To make a report. The usual process would be that the duty officer would take down details of your child and so on. That is the standard operating procedure or SOP.

And then what? Wait for police to start investigations? Launch a search? Desperate parents have been known to make posters and flyers of their missing kids. In many cases, this had helped, especially in getting perpetrators -- because of the heat from the community and public eye and ears - to release the child.

Meanwhile, you wait and try to keep in touch with the police for progress in your child's case. Then, of course, the story would get to the media but not all the time. Newspapers have reporters going on crime rounds and they get their stories from the reports made to at the various police stations. Some cases, for various reasons, are off the radar and don't get publicised.

Take Nurin Jazilin Jazimin's case in 2007. Her father made a police report but the police did not act on it until more than a week later, and only after he went to the Press, out of desperation. And we all know that by then, it was all too late.

And that was why a group of bloggers pushed for NURIN (Nationwide Urgent Response Information Network) Alert initiative. After some four years, it was accepted and renamed NUR (National Urgent Response) Alert.

Now, NUR Alert is supposed to make it all swift after the SOP has been carried out and the child meets the criteria for the alert to be activated.

Key in this is that the media is alerted so that people are made aware. The community is made aware and can help in locating the child.

Back to Bakri's remarks -- the police should be satisfied that the child had been abducted by persons unknown. We should expect the investigations to be proper.

The question is how long do the police need to investigate and then disseminate the info to the media, MCMC and other "committee members" of NUR Alert?

A day? two days? A week? or like Nurin's case .....?

Like AMBER Alert, NUR Alert is all about locating a missing child in the shortest possible time because if a child was abducted, for sure the perpetrator has evil motive and intention.

This has been proven in many missing children cases. Even in this country.

So, let's not go around in circles.

As for remarks by Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Deputy Datuk Heng Seai Kie, I am so disappointed. She needs to do some homework.

When asked by reporters in Ipoh on Sunday about NUR Alert, she repeated this tired line that it cannot be immediately activated when a child is reported missing but added that this was "to ensure a child's safety."

She is right, as they all are, in saying that NUR Alert cannot be activated immediately when a child is reported missing. YES YES YES...we know. We have to be sure that the child was really abducted etc etc..

But to ensure the child's safety? When you have determined that the child has been abducted, the child is NOT SAFE! If the child was abducted by a good person, which is highly unlikely, then you don't have to worry, do you? So, let's just agree that in an abduction case, a child is NEVER safe.

"When a child is reported missing, the system cannot be immediately activated as police need to investigate if the child had been kidnapped.

If the system is triggered for a kidnapped child, it may end up endangering the child's life instead."

Which part of NUR Alert do these people not understand?

"Kidnapped child"? For ransom - we don't activate NUR Alert because that's a different case as the kidnappers would be in touch with the police and family. Even the media are cautioned not to report in case the victim is harmed or killed.

OR, or abducted by strangers like Nurin, Sharlinie (Nini), Nisha Chandramohan or Lee Xin Ru. Nurin, of course, was found dead. Nini, Nisha and Xin Ru have never been found.

So, thank you, y'all. Keep to you mindset and you"ll see no progress.

NUR Alert had been activated five times, according to official sources. Really? Four days later? And through mmses?

Of the five, two - Dass Robert, 7, and Santiran Damaraj, 8 -were recovered in Penang last year, one - Nurul Nadirah - was found charred in Johor early this year and two, Nisha and Xin Ru, were never found.

Dass and Santiran were released by the person who held them.

When a child has been confirmed to have been abducted, you can be sure, he is not in safe hands. So, you have to start disseminating info about him or her.

That is what NUR Alert is about. So that everyone knows about the missing child and can help the police locate him or her quickly BEFORE he is harmed further, or killed.

For as long as the police and politicians beat around the bush over why NUR Alert is not effective, you will never be able to save a missing child.

And please stop talking about "fine-tuning" the system. The system is there. It is the process that you have to put into effect.

Meanwhile, tell me -- how many missing children have you saved/rescued?