Missing person cases prove costly for Sudbury police

The costs associated with finding missing people can escalate quickly, the Sudbury police force says.

Sudbury police Chief Paul Pedersonsaid the wide-range of resources used by the force puts a drain on finances.

"That's the cost of the business of policing," Pederson said.

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"I don't want for people at all to think that that's a bill that we give to somebody. This [is] the cost that's gobbled up in everybody's 87 to 89 cents a day that they pay for policing services in this community"

In June, a six-day search began for Gail and Boyd Lynds, a missing couple from Sudbury. Boyd was discovered dead while Gail was found safe.

Pederson said 53 officiers from every division of the force were involved. The cost of policestaffing for this case was $46,000, according to the chief.

"Everybody dropped their primary tasks and focused on finding out the status of these two people," he said.

Katherine Hucal, a Sudbury police officer who co-ordinates missing person investigations, said resource-intensive cases are rare.In fact, she saidroughly 80 per cent are habitual runaway caseswhile some involve children and elderly people.

Only a handful out of 1,000 cases reported annually to Sudbury policeuse up as many resources as the June search for Gail and BoydLynds, according to Hucal.

"Their safety and wellbeing is most important," she said. "We have to ensure we locate them and do every effort to locate them. We don't want them to become cold casesand we never find them."

Most cases are resolved within days and require no more than four officers, she added.