'Being missing is not a crime': Ottawa Missing Person unit gets hundreds and hundreds of reports

Last year, 2,600 missing person reports come across Sgt. Reno Rushford’s desk — 50 cases a week for Rushford and his team of two officers in the Ottawa police Missing Person unit to investigate.
Each one is assessed individually and prioritized to determine how best to respond. It may be an elderly man with dementia who needs medication, a toddler who wandered away from the park or a teenager in a group home who is a chronic runaway.
“Being missing is not a crime,” Rushfo