METRO VANCOUVER — Richmond parents are being warned to keep a closer eye on their children after police received a threat Tuesday that a child will be kidnapped in the next few weeks.
The threat suggested an Asian child who attends a Richmond elementary school will be abducted, RCMP Cpl. Jennifer Pound said.
Police said the information in the threat was minimal, but they deemed it serious enough to alert parents and school district staff immediately.
“We completely understand it might instil fear in people but we want to get the message out to parents. I can’t see any other way this can be done,” Pound said.
“To not put the information out there would be negligent on our part.”
The warning has prompted the Richmond school district to send a letter — in English and translated for Chinese parents — home Wednesday. It tells parents to remind their children to walk in groups or with an adult and stay in well-lit, high-traffic areas.
Pound said children should also be reminded to be vocal if they’re approached by strangers.
“If kids are approached they don’t have to be polite and quiet all the time. It’s a perfect time for them to be loud and scream and yell to get help from passersby.”
School district superintendent Bruce Beairsto said the district isn’t adding any extra security at this time as “schools are about the safest places they could be” because there are so many adults around.
But the district has alerted staff and maintenance workers to watch for any children in distress on the way to school or on evenings and weekends. The district has also alerted the city, he said, but added the entire community should be on watch.
Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie was in a meeting Tuesday but a city spokeswoman said he wouldn’t comment on the matter, referring all questions to the RCMP.
“Beyond that I don’t know what we can do,” Beairsto said, adding the district will remind students of safety precautions. “It’s not business as usual because people will be nervous.”
He said it’s too early to say whether the warning will lead to parents keeping their children home from school.
Rob Gordon, a criminology professor at Simon Fraser University, said he doubts the threat will lead to mass panic, noting parents are used to warnings to be extra vigilant.
But he said he was surprised police issued the warning, noting it’s unusual for them to issue alerts about a potential kidnapping as it could affect their chances of an arrest. He said he suspects the risk is serious enough to warrant the extra precaution.
“It’s a really tricky one, I’ve never seen anything like this one.
“I guess they’re giving the priority to the children in Richmond over law enforcement needs.”
In Toronto, a woman who was raped in 1989 successfully sued the Metro Toronto Police for negligence after they chose not to alert her about the danger of a rapist on the loose because they wanted to catch him in the act. The woman argued that if she had been warned, she could have taken safety precautions.
Gordon said that in this case, by alerting the community and the media, the police will likely lose their chance of making an arrest, but have a better chance of saving the child.
He said such cases are always difficult as police wrestle with whether they should warn the public rather than waiting to catching a perpetrator.
“They’ll thwart it, whoever is responsible will realize the jig is up,” he said. “I suspect [police] feel that it’s not safe; there’s a chance they could miss the abduction and the child would be at risk.”
Richmond school trustee Debbie Tablotney said the warning has heightened parents’ awareness. She noted the school district already has policies in place, such as notifying parents if their children don’t show up for school in the morning.
“I guess they have to take this very seriously. You wouldn’t want to dismiss it and have a child go missing,” she said.
“It’s going to lead to a lot of fear; children are our most precious asset. If it was me, I’d be walking my kids to and from school.”
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