The NSW Police Force has established a new unit to investigate and coordinate long-term missing persons cases.
The move follows a c review of the Missing Persons Unit (MPU) as part of Police Commissioner Michael Fuller’s re-engineering program.
Commissioner Fuller has announced that Project Aletheia will dissolve the MPU and implement a new structure to draw on the expertise of specialist detectives and analysts.
“It is clear that change is needed,” Commissioner Fuller said.
“To have a loved one go missing has a devastating impact on the person’s family and friends and while police do an outstanding job in providing support for the families, we are committed to providing outcomes,” he said.
“We owe it to the people of NSW to deliver better outcomes for families of missing persons and vulnerable people who are most at risk of going missing – those living with a mental illness, young people, and older people with dementia or memory loss – to ensure every opportunity is explored to find loved ones.”
He said Project Aletheia would form a Missing Persons Registry (MPR) within State Crime Command in a new state-of-the-art facility currently under development.
He said a team of seven detectives and four analysts would work to resolve current long-term missing person cases and assist frontline police improve their initial response to missing persons reports.
State Crime Commander, Acting Assistant Commissioner Stuart Smith, said Project Aletheia, meaning seeker of truth, would be the largest missing persons data matching project in Australia and was expected to revolutionise the way missing persons cases were managed and investigated.
“We are going to use every technological advancement available to us … to locate people and provide answers in cases which date back more than 60 years,” Acting Assistant Commissioner Smith said.
“With technology advancing every day, we will be innovative in the way we pursue investigations and continue to seek new developments in the future to solve cases.”
He said that in recent months Project Aletheia had led to more than 30 cases being resolved, with 13 people located offshore or interstate.
