$100K in forfeited money will assist in hunt for missing children

Saskatchewan’s justice ministry hopes dirty money can help find missing kids.

That’s the aim of the latest donation of $100,000 from its Criminal Property Forfeiture Fund (CPFF), announced Thursday.

The funding is being given to the non-profit organization Missing Children Society of Canada. It will be used to expand the organization’s Most Valuable Network Program, which uses social media and smartphone technology to alert people about missing children.

Since the CPFF was established, roughly $3.9 million has been doled out to police operations and to a fund for victims of crime, according to Justice Minister Don Morgan. “We felt that there was other things that can and should be done with that resource,” Morgan said, noting that Thursday’s donation comes as an “expansion” of the CPFF’s original intent.

The Most Valuable Network Program, touted as the “first online search party in Canada,” includes social media and a mobile app component.

On the social media end, once Twitter or Facebook users have “donated” their accounts by clicking on an icon on the organization’s website, police can effectively post alerts about missing children through those accounts, according to Amanda Pick, the organization’s CEO.

“A questions we always get asked is, ‘Does that mean you’re going to access my private information?’ ” she said. “Definitely not.”

On the mobile end, a downloaded smartphone app receives alerts that provide access to a photograph of the missing child, pertinent information and a live news feed, Pick said.

As an example of the program’s success, Pick explained how it was activated when a 14-year-old girl was lured away from Calgary by an “adult predator.”

“We were able to reach, at that point, over a million people with the information,” she said.

Pick feels that information generated pressure that helped Calgary police make an arrest and locate the girl.

The $100,000 will be used to generate awareness and form police partnerships in the province, while ensuring the program evolves with technology, she said.

The money was seized and then turned over to the province under the Seizure of Criminal Property Act, on the grounds that it was proceeds or an “instrument” of “unlawful activity.”

“We’re quite literally using criminals’ own resources against them,” said Morgan.

The Seizure of Criminal Property Act was ushered into law in 2009. Since 2015 it has allowed the province to acquire seized property valued at less than $75,000 through what is termed “administrative forfeiture.”

This means, so long as the owner of the property doesn’t want to dispute the forfeiture, the process can take place outside the courts.

However, there are a few exceptions. Administrative forfeiture does not apply to land, buildings or property with registered interests against it, such as a loan on a vehicle.

As of Oct. 31, the balance of the CPFF was $424,595.