The Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Canberra Milk have joined forces to revive the practice of printing the faces of missing people on Canberra’s plastic milk bottles.
Assistant Police Commissioner Debbie Platz said the initiative, which is now under way, would see 12 long-term missing people with connections to the Canberra region featured on one litre fresh milk bottles for six weeks.
“This initiative will result in missing persons’ profiles being seen by many thousands of Canberrans every time they have a bowl of cereal, bake a cake or make a cup of tea,” Assistant Commissioner Platz said.
“It takes us back to the days before Amber Alerts and social media notifications, to when reports of missing people appeared in a place guaranteed to catch the eyes of the broader population — on milk cartons.”
She said she hoped this tried-and-tested method would start a new conversation about the region’s missing people and how the community could help police find them.
ACT Chief Police Officer, Ray Johnson welcomed the move saying it was important to raise awareness of the issue of long term missing people.
“There are families who have been waiting, in some cases for decades, for news about their loved ones,” Chief Police Officer Johnson said.
“This new campaign is one more tool to what may provide vital information to investigators in each of these 12 cases,” he said.
